Lessons of Metal and Hearts
by Mara Gin
Summary: This is set after the second movie. A young girl suddenly finds the world as she knows it turned upside down when she finds a baby transformer in the Nevada desert. What will she do when the Autobots and Decepticons find out? How far will she go to protect this baby con? And more importantly who's is it?
1. Prologue

Hi, first off I wanted to say this is my very first story and I hope u like it.

(Koodos and kit-kats to u all who give this a try).

I also wanted to say I enjoy constructive criticism of my stories but please, don't fill the review box with useless mean comments that just take up space.

I mean seriously flamers can't you go find something better to do? Any ways, hope you like this, like I said comments are greatly appreciated and so are ideas for the story. I promise if I get more than five reviews I'll put up more chapters; as long I can make a few happy with this story I'm set.

So…what are u waiting for reading this authors comment hurry and get to the story! :p

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_**Lessons of Metal and Hearts**_

Prologue:

A sliver blur cradling a small bundle to her chest raced across an empty wasteland that was strewn with enormous, dilapidated metallic, buildings.

With just as equally enormous metallic corpses flung around them with hollow optics, and missing limbs, almost like broken metal dolls.

'_I can't stand this any longer_'

Thought the blur, cradling the bundle more tightly to her chest plates.

**BOOM**!

The sound shakes the ground, sounding off the roars of gunfire in the distance. A muffled cry came from the small bundle as the ground shook, jostling the newborn sparkling awake.

'_We aren't safe here anymore, don't worry little one I won't let them harm you.'_

**BOOM**!

The sound was extremely close now, signaling the battle was dangerously close.

'_I hate this war it has brought nothing but pain and suffering. Why won't it just end!'_

**BOOM! CRASH! HISS**!

The femme didn't have time to think anymore; the war was here.

She dodged a cannon blast by mere inches as she ran with still more gunfire raining down from seekers and bots on the ground alike as they kept trying to hit each other.

The sliver femme ran inside an old shuttle launch building. She sprinted up the stairs to the shuttle pads on the topmost floor and searched wildly around for a working shuttle to escape in.

She spotted one, and her spark dropped in despair.

There was only one shuttle left but it was too small for the femme to crawl into, the only thing that could fit a pod that small was either a package, or perhaps, a sparkling.

The femme's spark gave a wave of sadness and longing for what she knew she had to do. She was almost selfish and almost didn't accept what she had to do or what were to happen to her or her sparkling if she didn't. She tried not to think of the horrors that would face them both in a few moments if she didn't hurry.

The sparkling gave a low piteous wail when it couldn't feel its mothers spark against its body anymore and a cool metal casing instead. The femme's weak spark gave another lunge for her sparkling; to hold it, to confront it, to never it go.

**CRASH**!

Bots had broken in to the building and were securing all floors for any survivors.

Times up.

The grieving femme put the shuttle into launch mode and placed a delicate hand on the cold shuttle surface and stared at her small defend less sparkling for the last time, the sparkling gave one last cry for its mother

**WHOOSH**!

… And was gone.

'_Oh primus, please keep him safe and let someone good and kind find him and love him like I never can.'_

That was the last thing the femme thought as a loud whirl and hiss exploded the heavy silence.

Far away in deep space the infant sparkling suddenly began screaming and crying when it longer sensed its mother's spark.

Alone now, in space, the infant cybortornian cried itself asleep.

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So? Should I keep going? Please I'm am gonna combust, Please REVIEW! (Explodes in the distance) o_0


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter one

_Colors, that changed so violently it made me sick_

Mandy

_Bright lights that hurt my eyes._

Amanda!

_Metal screeching on metal_.

MONGOOSE!

"I wanna be a mongoose." I mumbled sleepily and rolled onto my side.

The girl know as Sandy sighed and flopped back into her chair with an irritated scowl on her face. She brushed her dark black hair from her face with an exaggerated scowl. Suddenly her face lit up and she broke out in a sly grin as she slowly began to lean over the sleeping girl in the seat beside her.

She took a long breath before leaning into the smaller girl's ear and yelling "TWO GIRLS AND ONE CUP!"

"AAAAHHHHH!" I screamed in terror at the top of my lungs, which caused almost everyone to turn in their seats and watch my panic attack with disturbed and amused faces.

Sandy burst out laughing before hugging me in a friendly gesture, while I curled into a fetal position, panting like I ran five miles. After I regained my composer I whipped my head around in her embrace and hissed menacingly.

"Aaaww, you really are a mongoose" Sandy teased.

"Why did you do that?" I growled still a bit peeved by all the people staring at us.

"Because where here, not like that's important or anything though" she yawned playfully ignoring my look of surprise. I jumped up and wiggled in my seat around her, much to her complaint, to stare out the bus window at the endless desert of Nevada in awe, drinking up the different sight of the barren wasteland like a dying man would drink water.

Sandy and I grew up in the tropical wonderland known as Miami, Florida. In it you couldn't turn your head without seeing green or rain, so to an extent a desert was quite a new place for us to experience.

Little did I know this godforsaken patch of earth would change my life and the world forever.

Sometimes I'd wonder, if given a chance and if I knew what I do now, would I have changed anything? Could I have pretended that nothing had ever happen and just have gone about my merry little way, or at the very least what could have been my merry little way?

Would I have been normal? Would I really have remained just an ignorant little high school sophomore left to dream of the supposed boundless opportunities that supposedly laid at my fingertips? Would I have ever found a job? Got married? Had kids? Would I have been that one to have that nice, lush, garden house with that white picket fence and the giant mango tree that seemed older than Ponce de Leon himself?

Who knows...Though I highly doubt it. Mom always said I was born to do something special, though sometimes I wish she wasn't always right.

"Awesome" I chirped excitedly and Sandy smiled in agreement as we both stuck or heads out the window enjoying the last rays of sunset on our faces until we reached the small town of Rachel, Nevada where we boarded one last bus that took us to a small bed and breakfast inn on the outskirts of the tiny town. By that time it was close to midnight. Everyone was tired and did not put up much of a fight as they given their assigned rooms and schedules for the next day.

Though I was lucky to be able to share a room with Sandy, unfortunately we both were paired with one last roomate named Terry, whom I disliked immensely.

_"Gggrowl!"_

I moaned sadly and threw myself onto the bed, waiting for my stomach to stop torturing me and let me sleep at last. Sandy grimaced at the starling sound.

"Mandy, if I have any bite marks on me in the morning I known to light YOUR clothes on fire." The pyromaniac warned.

"Hahaha, so funny I forgot to laugh. Now shut up." I snapped as I groaned in pain and accidently rolled off the bed with a painful thump.

As sandy continued to tease me and I started looking for her lighter, Terry came out of the bathroom with pink nails, a facial mask and all. Sandy and I paused in our antics. I rolled my eyes and could only guess Sandy disliked her as much as I did by the way she glared at the wall in front of her.

I think she might burn holes in it… poor wall.

Terry huffed at our play fighting as she blew on her nails before speaking.

"If I didn't know that was your stomach I would have assumed a bear had gotten in the room." She then glared around the room then finally on me. Sandy snorted.

"Ya, because bears live in the Nevada desert" She muttered under her breath. I rolled my eyes in agreement.

How two science geeks like Sandy and I get stuck with sharing a room with this snarky blonde I'll never know. For goodness sakes, this was science field trip for advanced students, and yet here she was, the only one in our entire school to fail Biology 101, twice.

I had zoned out from her one sided conversation against me as I imagined feeding this future bimbo to actual bears once we got home, but not before catching her last comment.

"…You smell like a stupid bear though, who knows maybe after tonight you'll wake up with a one in your bed. After all wasn't your daddy into stuff like that? A stupid red-neck from the backwoods? Hey! I bet he liked all those farm animals so much that that's why he up and left you and your mom" She sneered as she turned off the light on her side of the room and then proceeded to climb into her bed.

I snarled angrily in her direction at the back hand comments as my fists curled and uncurled by my sides in my lap. Sandy openly glared at Terry as she came over to place her hands comfortingly around my shoulders, whether to soothe me or hold me back I wasn't entirely sure.

Then I smiled as I shook sandy off and whispered just loud enough so that Terry could hear me.

"If one does come in here I'll be sure to put in a good word for you too. Who knows maybe you'll be the one with a bear in her bed, after all your much better at that sort of thing anyhow, and besides you're defiantly hairier then I am." I smirked wickedly.

I could see Sandy silently holding in her chuckles from the corner of my eye and I could see Terry shaking with rage from across the room. I risked one last taunt as I stood up to search for some money to buy a snack downstairs and finally quell my annoying stomach.

"Sleep tight" I crooned in a sickly sweet voice "don't let that bear romp your fat ass tonight."

Sandy started crying from laughing too hard, Terry was quietly steaming under her covers as I grinned like a Chinese cat and I garbed some change before heading downstairs towards the vending machine.

As I climbed down the stairs searching for the vending machine I had seen earlier, I inhaled deeply and savored the cold dry air of the desert not twenty feet from me. The cold air soothed my heated cheeks and calmed my aggravated senses.

I must have inhaled too much sand in the wind because I began to cough violently and my eyes became irritated as a few tears flew down my face. As I kept coughing I searched blindly for a water fountain or vending machine.

After several minutes of choking on dust I stopped and wiped my eyes, but by that time I was hopelessly lost in a maze of hallways with the desert as my only exit.

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Somewhere in orbit of the Milky Way galaxy:

The lone pod carrying the infant cybertornean was still cruising through space without stopping. The infant was still in sleep mode to conserve energy for its long flight, with no stop or company from its mother it did not have any reason to come out of recharging mode and waste energy by crying or doing nothing; that is, as long as the pod didn't burn out.

But from traveling for so far and long and after many vorns without any maintenance the pod was about to fail and make a crash landing on any planet strong enough, whose gravity could be used to pull it pod's burner was about to run out, but out of protocol it gave a quick message to its occupant.

Warning! Engine Malfunction!

The loud warning woke the infant who began fidgeting in its cramped conditions.

WARNING! CRASH LANDING INEVITABLE!

Almost as if the baby could understand the warnings, it began to whimper then cry. The pod passed a small moon then began dropping toward a planet whose gravitational field began to pull the pod to itself. The pod was falling now surrounded by fire from its descent and wind whipping around it as it headed for the darker side of the planet. Before the pod gave out entirely it gave one last message then blacked out.

Unmarked planet; life detected; organic

Name: EARTH

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Enjoy. :)


	3. Chapter 2

I don't own nothin, except my OCs. Enjoy :)

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Chapter two

On a small, uncharted, tropical island named Dias Gracias, there stands a huge military fort for a secret covert section of the government called the N.E.S.T team.

The fort was much bigger than any other secret military fort due to some of its occupants. Inside the fort an alarm rang out meant for those said occupants.

"All Autobots report to Autobot command hanger immediately!", the alarm sounded out.

All the autobots and a few trusted human soldiers on hand quickly joined in the main hanger of the autobot's base for the emergency meeting.

"All right, pay attention ya slag heaps" Ironhide the weapon specialist thundered to get everyone's attention.

A pair of obnoxious twins named Skids and Mudflap sent a rude gesture at Ironhide. Just as the weapon specialist was about to respond to their antics with his cannons in kind, a great hand fell on his shoulder. He turned and quickly dropped his cannons upon seeing who the massive hand belonged to.

"No need to get upset Ironhide"

Optimus prime, the leader of the autobots said as he calmly walked into the room. Then clearing his vocal processer he turned to the remaining autobots making sure that he had their undivided attention before he began to speak.

"It seems there is an unidentified cybertornian shuttle pod about to crash onto Earth. Whoever they are they have not sent a distress signal or signified what fraction they belong to."

There was a mummer a quick surprise among the autobots and humans both at the mystery of this new stranger. Guesses and bets as to who was arriving and to what fraction they might belong to were placed all around as the listening human simply became confused and excited. The whispering stopped when Optimus raised a hand.

"We are positive that this shuttle holds another cybertornian; though they may be injured or in temporarily state of lockdown. Regardless, the mission is to go to its landing destination and confront them whether they are friend or foe."

Optimus finished watching the other bots reactions ranging from very to surprise, excitement, and a little boredom here and there.

Almost immediately The twins began firing off questions and tripping over each other and other autobots as they debated to each other who would go on the mission; but stopped when they saw Ratchet and Ironhide pointing weapons at them in a threatening manner.

The gears clinked and shifted in the leader's head as he signed at his comrades antics and proceeded to list the soldiers that would accompany him on the mission and addressed those that where to stay behind to guard the base against any and all attacks.

The human N.E.S.T team that were assigned to the mission began almost immediately setting up cover stories to cover any possible incidents, prepping their weapons and strategy as they called in the shuttle and cargo planes that would take the autobots and N.E.S.T team to the grossly estimated coordinates of the alien shuttle pod's landing site.

As the autobots transformed into their automobile forms and were loaded onto the cargo planes the N.E.S.T team commander, William Lennox, lazily sauntered over to Optimus.

"So where are we going exactly, big guy?" Will asked.

"The shuttle should being touching down with the coordinates of '62lat and '03long in the state of Nevada in a little less than 400 hours" Optimus rumbled in his auto form.

"That's pretty exact" Will exclaimed as his eyebrows shot up.

Optimus's form rumbled as he chuckled at the surprise on his human friend's face.

"You asked 'exactly' where Captain Lennox. Would you have liked for a more direct coorindinates"? Will blinked and gaped quietly as he tried to explain the simple slang term to the autobot leader as something that was not to be taken literally, again.

"Well, what I meant to say...What I mean was...never mind" Will chuckled, embarrassed as he walked away, scratching the back of his head sheepishly as he vowed never to try and explain slang terms to giant alien robots ever again, especially to their leader.

As captain Lennox climbed into the NEST deployed plane Lennox walked past his team and sat down on the metal bench next to his second in command Sergeant Robert Epps with a grunt of frustration.

"Hah, what's got you beat man, we haven't even taken off yet", Epps laughed as he got a look at Will's sheepish face.

"Nothing much, just got stumped stupid when Optimus took me literally again when I asked where we're heading." He chuckled.

"At least there a hell of a lot better than Google maps" Epps joked.

Both of the N.E.S.T commanders laughed out loud as the last of the planes now fully loaded and primed began taking off into the merciless sunlit sky.


	4. Chapter 3

Enjoy :)

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Chapter Three

Somewhere amidst the outer rings of Saturn a titanic, damaged, alien ship floats among the space dust and derbies from the surrounding cosmic rings. Even though this ship appears abandoned and desolate the interior of this ship houses yet another type of alien cybertornian race, though this one much more fearsome and blood thirsty than their Autobot counter parts. They where know as Decepticons.

Through the cold, dank, corridors a gigantic figure stalks, its footsteps echoing off the metallic walls eerily. The con's figure was slight but burly as it clamored down the hallways in haste; its dark shadow danced across the walls sinisterly, resembling a great bird of prey somehow.

The decepticon rushed past the long, dark, hallways and entered into an even more equally dark and damp room the sound of dripping water could be heard from afar.

The darkness was abruptly priced by giant sets of ruby red optics. The darkness morphed to individual shadows as the different decepticons turned around stepped back somewhat so as to acknowledge the new additional shadow in their rank; though some doing so begrudgingly.

The tallest pair of optics shined sinisterly as they analyzed the shorter bird-like silhouette, then a deep, malice filled voice growled out into the darkness like an animal.

"Starscream! What is it this time you slanging piece of scrap"?

"My lord I have found something quite interesting" A high raspy voice spoke.

Suddenly the biggest shade moved into the light of a few cracks on the ship's hull that caused some stray reflected gaseous light to expose the creature. The sight was enough to send any human or bot to shudder in horror and dread.

Megatron, the infamous leader of the decepticons, stepped into the light and stalked closer to his second in command Starsrceam.

"What is it?" he grounded out impatiently.

Starscream tried not to visibly shuddered under the leader's harsh glare. Even he could recognize that his leader in a beyond fool mood today.

"Soundwave has located an old model of a cybertronian shuttle pod that was drifting through space and-" Megaton, swiftly like a hawk, brought his fist down on the other mech jaw before he could say another word and set him kneeling on the hard to the damp floor.

"You would dare to come to me with such useless information!" thundered the vicious decepticon leader as the other mechs stared silently at the scene from the shadows, wit a few grins here and there.

"Master let me finish!" Starscream pleaded as he coughed some pink liquid, energon, that was his life source.

"Go on" Megaton bit out.

Starscream repressed the urge to flinch in pain as he collected himself off the ground.

"Soundwave has analyzed the pod and reveled that there was another bot inside, but they are in status mode, and the pod bore no recognizable signatures or symbols of any fraction. It is a mystery how the pod is even still funcitional"

His small speech immediately interested everyone all at once as some deceptions in the back voiced out their suggestions.

"Silence" Megatron boomed turning to Starscream.

"Where is this rouge con heading"?

Starscream fidgeted slightly

"Well my lord I don't have any exact location…" Megatron once again grab hold of the Screamer and threw him off the ground by his neck a few human feet into the air.

As he brought the seeker against the wall he growled like an animal as he spoke in such a poison filled way to the struggling seeker in his grasp

"You wouldn't dare lie to me Starscream, would you" It wasn't a question more as it was a threat of pain for the choking seeker.

Megatron threw his second in command against the wall once again and asked again much more aggressively this time.

"Where was the pod heading Starsrceam!"

"E-earth my liege, Soundwave predicted the shuttle would crash land onto earth by '62lat and '03long in the state of Nevada in a little less than 400 hours" Starscream wheezed out the exact coordinates as he gripped his aching voice processor.

A dangerously poison filled smirk crossed over the decepticon leader's face revealing sharp, jagged, knife-like teeth. Megatron slowly collected himself as he turned to address his other subordinates with a scowl on his face.

"Well then what are the rest of you waiting for, prepare for your destinations and get ready to launch!" He yelled at them.

Wasting no time the rest of the decepticons quickly separated and made their ways to obtain supplies or fuel for the painstaking long trip to earth, now that their ship was damaged.

The scowl on Megatron's face soon turned back into a bone-chilling smirk as he turned once again to observe the pitch-black darkness that encompassed the ship

"Soon Optimus we will meet again and I will have my revenge".

Megatron growled a low throaty chuckle as the echoes of his threat still lingered in the air and his blooded red optics melted once again into the darkness.

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Lol poor Starscream, but I had to put it in there. Megatron is just a mega meanie that way. Review.


	5. Chapter 4

_Hello again I remember now to do the disclamation sooo… here it goes! _

_Disclamation: I don't own transformers or any of the characters of Transformers or anything remotely similar. So please comment and review when you're done. They all are appreciated and thank you all who have reviewed so far (you all get muffins!) Enjoy._

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Chapter Three

"Oh great! I should have had Sandy come with me!" I sighed angrily as I walked over to a jutting curb that sat between the desert and hotel parking lot and gracelessly plopped down.

I was lost, plain and simple. I wasn't paying any attention to where my room was when I assigned to it and now I was hopelessly lost. After struggling to find that the front office after a couple laps around the complex I found that it was completely abandoned and closed until the next morning. I opted against whether or not to just barge into the nearest hotel room and ask around for help, fearful or what or who I might find if I knocked on the wrong door of this seedy motel in the middle of the night. And to top everything off I didn't even have a key.

Suddenly, I felt a very particular sensation crawl down my spine as sat rejected on the curbside.

I frowned at the strange feeling. I felt as if I were being watched by something or someone.

I scrunched up my nose as I scanned my surroundings critically.

Hard as I tired I couldn't find anything remotely alive in the general vicinity, so me being my lazy self I shook off the feeling. Soon enough boredom overcame me as I laid down and stretched out onto my back as I began trying to count the stars in the nark navy blue sky.

About half an hour later I felt as if I would cry from sheer boredom. I sat up with a grunt as I rubbed my aching back.

Soon enough I started to count cars and other miscellaneous things in the parking lot. I signed with mixed emotions of frustration and exhaustion as I tried to think of something that would get me out of this mess.

I gave up after counting five cars when I noticed a cool looking blue and red semi truck. It had flames all along its sides, blue lights outlining its front hood and side rails, and from my view a wicked looking interior too.

Yet, it was turned on…

But without the headlights or the smell of gas in the air it was hard to notice before until my hearing became sharper through time and I could hear the purring of the engine from my lounging form and even a muffled sound of a radio inside it.

Strange. The truck looked valuable yet who ever owned it just left it turned on in the middle of the parking lot.

**'The doors are probably unlocked too'** I thought to myself.

It was facing me, with the engine on and the radio on as well. It gave me the impression it was waiting for something.

I scoffed to myself mentally

**'Cars don't wait for things!'**

I took another glance at the semi, studying it carefully. I was getting the creepy impression it was analyzing me as well.

Suddenly a high pitch whistling sound started up, almost like the sound of a shrill whistle. I looked around momentarily forget the strange pick-up for the strange noise.

Then the noise turned into a loud roar like a jumbo jet taking off. I jumped up as fast as I could before covering my ears and shutting my eyes in pain.

Groaning, I forced my eyes open to look for the source of the noise. It sounded as if it were coming closer but from where I couldn't tell.

Then I saw it, it looked like a small meteorite flying not above the clouds but through the clouds, shining like a great blot of lighting from heaven that could split the earth in two.

To be honest I don't know why I did it, but before I could even begin to figure out what was happening I realized, with a start, that I was jogging away from of the hotel and following the comet in the sky. As soon as my feet connected with rough desert sand behind the hotel my legs grew a mind of their own and I started sprinting after it as fast as I could.

I was at war with myself. Part of me wanted to get as far away from the awful noise as I could, but my legs refused to comply and the part of me that wanted to find out where the meteor was going won out. I was overcome by fear, anxiety, and strangely enough worry as well. Where this rush of emotions came from I didn't know but one thing's for sure, it definitely got my heart pumping and my legs racing faster.

As the comet bolted ahead of me, its fiery light illuminated the desert in a fiery orange glow for a few brief moments, just as brightly as the daylight before it. In those few moments I saw that I was far away from the hotel and more out in the desert then I realized.

That didn't slow my pace one bit.

I continued sprinting across the now bleached white sand dunes of the desert chasing a flaming meteor for almost no reason at all, except on a very strong desire that I had to follow it. I won't admit to myself even now, but I'm certain those feelings that pushed me as fast as my body could go weren't mine at all.

Sheez, I must have no common sense what so ever. That or I'm a total nutter.

Though, as I ran I had the strangest feeling that I was also running away from something, whether I could see it or not, it was something that in the pit of my gut that also told me I didn't want to meet it anytime soon. It almost felt like an irrational instinct to escape something even if I didn't know where the danger was.

Like hawk hunting a rabbit, and I was the rabbit.

As I was internally debating my jumbled and messed up thoughts while subconsciously sprinting the meteor abruptly slammed into the earth,not twenty feet from me. It's collision drowned out the pouring light that had seconds ago lit up the desert like the morning sun and sent a shockwave so far and hard through the earth that in mid sprint I was catapulted of my feet and thrown backwards like a rag doll.

The roar was so tremendous it practically bounced off the sand dunes and the inside of my skull like an echo.

I was pretty sure even the people from Miami could hear that one.

I rolled backwards for a good long while before smashing into a large bolder. The air in my lungs left with a woosh as I fell onto my side, all the while coughing from the dust cloud above me that resulted from my tumble in the sand. After a minute of regaining my breathe I wearily got to my feet before scanning the blackened desert, wondering where the meteorite had fallen. I stumbled around blindly from the sudden changes in light trying to find something to grab onto until my eyes could readjust to the blackness of night

"Then I could look for that accursed meteor", I growled to myself.

"AH!"

Shortly after that comment I fell face first into the crater the meteor had made.

After another round of coughing and sputtering I growled angrily as I lifted myself off the ground. I could see the meteor in front of me now without the fire surrounding it. It was about the size of a small van and but it did not glow, like in the Sic-fi movies, but shined, like a metallic orb reflecting a light that I couldn't see.

"It's almost like a fish scale in the sun", I said out loud and without any hesitation I lifted my hand to touch the alien like object.

Common sense told me not to touch the strange thing before I told common sense to take a hike.

Than again, something of this much strangeness might have just blown my common sense out of the water and so without thinking long and hard about the situation I began reaching out to touch the surface of the meteor.

When my hand… no, my skin connected with the meteorite three things happened at once.

The first was that I noticed the meteor felt warm and alive, like a pregnant woman's stomach. How cool!

The second was that a great crash of tremors and metallic screeching sounded in the night. Some sort gunfire began sounding around me and voices began shouting violently at each other in another language. but I couldn't understand any of it. I shrieked in fear as a long, powerful, metallic screech filled the chaotic night air and I began looked frantically around in the dark.

I hardly noticed when the comet stared to pulsate and grow increasingly warmer under my hand.

"STOP!" a powerful voice boomed in English this time.

The third thing was that shortly after someone had shouted that, the comet gave a great shock of energy that surged through my arm and around to my back, almost like putting my finger into a socket of a power plant.

My eyes widened until I felt as if they were about to pop out of my skull. It felt like fire was surging in my veins and blood and even in the core of my bones, almost like connecting live wires to my cells that released surges electricity that ran up and down my body.

I let out a bloodcurdling scream of pain that tore though the desert's silence like a knife before crumpling unconscious to the ground.

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Well that's gotta hurt. Sorry my OC...


	6. Chapter 5

Here comes my first ever written piece of a battle scene. Hooray! Actually no its kinda grim...oh well, enjoy. :)

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_**Optimus POV:**_

The desert night was calm and quiet as the hot wind whipped past my alt form and the black asphalt of the road crunched under my tires. Using our scanners during the long trip from the military's landing strip, we searched for the main highway that would lead us near the shuttle's landing coordinates without drawing too much attention from the small human faculties that dotted the area.

The location to the coordinates was a rough trip from the secret landing strip, so much so that the NEST team struggled to keep up with us until we reached the main highway. It would be less than a half a human hour to reach the soon to be crash site which was mapped a few miles east of the highway.

I grew uneasy as we traveled down the dirt path and my scanners detected a small, unmapped, human recharging stop that was only a mile or two from the highway and incredibly close to the landing site by only a few miles at most. Every one grew uneasy as we contemplated the new complication thrown into the plan. My communications link quickly went off as various bots tried to communicate with me for new orders on the new situation.

I calmly addressed one of the links and Ratchet's voice quickly floated through my processor.

"**Optimus, this is a dire situation those humans are too close to the crash site and a probable battlefield to simply let them be."** I visibly sunk on my tires as Ratchet's words rang true in my over the comm. link.

"**Send Bumblebee and the Femmes to do a scout of how many humans we must evacuate"** I ordered sternly. Ratchet agreed and began issuing my orders to the scouts.

As Bumblebee and the Triplets dispatched and began scouting the area I quickly communicated to Lennox's radio trying to understand their plans for the bystanders in the hotel. As the NEST commander answered his call I began explaining the situation to him and his confused team.

"Captain Lennox, what is your evacuation plan for the residents within the rest stop?" the tense long silence began to worry be.

I repeated my question where as I still received no answer. I pressed forward on the incoming radio waves the NEST team satiate was broadcasting and realized my transmission was being blocked by a government call from the Pentagon, their human leaders.

Against my better judgment I override the radio link to listen in on the unsuspecting humans. My audio receptors picked up on a heated argument between Lennox and another human male that I identified as the government supervisor from the Pentagon that had been dispatched to the base on a check up a few months prior.

I knew my actions would risk upsetting the human officials if they ever found out, and risk the wire thin trust they had with us already, but now time was of the essence and it was running out fast.

"Commander we need to evacuate these people. Their way to close to a hot zone and if the decepticons show up they wouldn't think twice about killing everybody in there!" Lennox shouted enraged over his speaker. Another voice that wasn't the NEST supervisor answered instead

"And just where would you evacuate the few people inside an old, dingy, motel in the middle of the Nevada desert to Major Lennox? I don't believe the government would want to deal with mass hysteria reports and more of these sighting leaked all over the worldwide web again." The familiar voice sneered over the inter com.

"Galloway! You little-" Galloway cut Sergeant Epps off very rudely.

"I would tell your underling to speak when spoken too Lennox if he would like to keep his position" Galloway threatened.

Optimus frowned at the whining government that had previously threaten him and race about residing on their planet, now he was mistreating his human comrades. Was there ever any cooperation among these humans?

"If you can't come up with a simple answer Lennox then I suggest you continue with this alien retrieval mission as planned" Galloway taunted. The sound of teeth grinding together was apparent over the speaker and I could only imagine the dangerous level William Lennox's blood pressure had risen too. Ratchet would be most displeased. With a straining voice Lennox pleaded with his commander.

"Commander-" but he was cut off again.

"Captain Lennox I have direct orders from the white house and I have no choice but to agree with agent Galloway" a brief pause from the commander then an aggravated sigh. "Stand down solider and proceed with the mission as planned. There is nothing we can do for these people right now and destroying the enemy threat takes top priority. I'm sorry Lennox, over and out."

My receptors detected that the communication link had been severed and I could practically sense the NEST team's anger over the careless injustice to the oblivious humans resting inside the motel. My comm. link began to sound off rapidly as Ratchet's worried voice came back into my processor.

"**Prime, we've detected nearly two dozen Decepticon signatures farther out in a 50 mile radius in the desert, closing in fast, and bumblebee's and the femme's scouting report is indicating the faculty is completely filled with humans!"** I felt my unease rise into an almost panic at ratchet's report.

"**This isn't good at all, that must be at least 30 or more humans inside that building, old friend."** I spoke as my vocal cords tighten in tension.

"**That's not the worst part, I'm sending the scouts scans now."** In less than a few nano seconds the scan filtered through my processor and my optics widen in despair at the images of the humans going about their business or recharging within the complex.

"**Their all mostly sparkling Prime, it must be some kind of educational trip"** Ratchet informed his voice grave over the comm. link. I continued scanning the humans inside the building with my spark sinking as I realized most of the human sparklings where as young or younger then the first time he and his comrades had encountered their first human, Samuel James Witwicky.

My spark shuddered in ice-cold fear at the thoughts of the decepticons sparing these innocent human adolescents no mercy when they went on their selfish bloody rampage.

"**Ratchet inform the rest of the troops to prepare for a fight. Split them into two groups, both will began setting perimeters around the crash site and the human hotel. If the humans won't protect their own kind then we will."**

"**Alright then Prime"** Ratchet chuckled and added **"over and out"** as he closed the comm. link.

My engine rumbled as I unleashed a chuckle when Ratchet had reviled he too had been eavesdropping on the humans conversation.

'**Some things just don't** **change'** I mused as I again tired to contact the NEST team.

Robert Epps answered instead of Lennox.

"Hey big guy were ready on our side here" Epps called out already suspecting which Transformer he was speaking too. A shuffle sounded in the back of the speaker and a new voice sounded into the mouthpiece.

"What's going on Optimus why are you setting a perimeter around the motel?" Will asked generally confused.

"William we are setting a perimeter the shuttle site and the motel as we speak, what is your defense plan in case of a decepticon attack on the human faculty?" I questioned as I hoped the NEST commander would have the logic to see through this loophole.

"Don't worry about it Optimus we already have our men setting up a perimeter around the motel and we will send some troops over to began a complete evacuation before any of the decepticons get to close." Lennox spoke confidently over the radio waves, understanding the immediate threat in the area.

"We need you guys to start going to the pickup site and focus on setting up your perimeter mainly there if we're going to have to evacuate this many people far enough away from the hot zone."

I agreed to Lennox reasonable strategy and I quickly contacted everyone and began correcting my orders to the mechs. I rolled briefly into the hotel parking lot to gain access to the unpaved desert quicker so I could reach my comrades faster.

As I was passing over the rusting, glowing neon sign of the hotel I paused my engine as the warning bells in my scanners detected the shuttle pod had broken the earth's atmosphere and had began its fiery journey with the earth's gravity sooner than expected.

I was so engrossed in tracking the shuttle's descent and encoding the confusing, scrambled signal it was emitting. I didn't sense something appearing very close until warning sirens in my processor went off once again. I tore my optics from the sky to the empty parking lot before me and froze in my alt form as I realized I wasn't as alone as I originally thought.

A young human sparkling was lying quietly on the curb that separated the parking lot and the sands of the desert. She was too staring at the sky as if she was waiting for something to fall from the heavens as well.

I couldn't begin to understand how I hadn't noticed her before or why she was out in the hotel parking lot in the dead of night. She seemed physical fine and her attire suggested she was ready to recharge in a berth inside the hotel instead of sitting outside in the hotel's parking lot, observing her surroundings.

As the female human grew restless she sat up and began to observe the few vehicles in the parking lot. I could feel my alt form stiffen as her roaming eyes land on me and stayed trained on my form for a while. She cocked her head in confusion and her sleepy eyes lit up in curious excitement as she observed me. As she was watching me I did a quick chemical scan on her body for my peace of mind that assured me that she was unharmed, physically and mentally. During my scan the girl shook her head and frowned in discomfort as she turned away from me as her instinct kicked in and alerted her of someone watching her as well.

I could feel my brow crease slightly as I contemplated what to do with this small human that was seemingly lost, confused, and stranded in the open with decepticons stalking nearby. I was torn in between two decisions on beginning to help the human soldiers with their evacuation plan, starting with this child, or to rush off to help my comrades prepare for a oncoming battle against the decepticons.

I was preparing to turn on my human hologram and come over to the girl's side and ask where her parental units where when a soft metallic screeching began that I knew all too well.

"**The shuttle is about to crash land"** my engine revved in surprise at its swift entrance.

The girl looked around puzzled at the strange noise then jumped up and yelped in pain as she covered her audio receptors and shielded her eyes. Then the girl did something that left my spark shocked to its core.

Instead of her normal reaction to look for cover she shook violently for a couple of seconds then ignoring her instinct, she spun around and began sprinting across the parking lot and out onto the desert sands as fast as her human body could move. My sensors where assaulted violently by the shuttle's scrambling messages, my comm. link quickly going off in my processor and my radar detecting another faction of cybertronians closing in fast on the predicted coordinates of the hot zone.

Ignoring the splitting pain I opened my link and shouted out to all the autobot's of the new liability running straight into the battlefield.

**"This is Optimus prime, there is a human adolescent heading for the landing zone, intercept her quickly and take her to the NEST team at the human hotel before she get's injured."**

I shouted over the link I had with the other bots as I jolted into action and my tires screeched on the pavement as I lurched forward after the confused, running girl. As I began gaining in the direction the human had run off too a dark shadow passed overhead and I spiraled violently to avoid getting blasted by the cybertronian fighter jet that unleashed a shower of gunfire on me.

I jumped, nearly missing gunfire aimed at my alt form, and transformed in midair air. Landing on my knees I whipped out my canon gun to shoot at the decepticon circling overhead. As I exchanged gunfire with Starscream as another jet, not disguised at all in a human alt form but rather our native cybertrionain appearance, raced off ahead of us and after one last round of gunfire hailed down at me Starcream swooped in the direction of his leader. I ran across the desert for a few more moments until I ran headfirst into the battle zone.

**Third person POV:**

The sounds of machine gun fire and gears clinking in transformation could be heard in the night as the expected and anticipated battle between the eternally warring factions began. As the autobots began chasing the falling pod the NEST team had stayed hidden in wait directly near the expected coordinates of the pod's rough descent. They hid in the cover of darkness of the dunes of desert sand in anticipation for a decepticon ambush; they didn't have to wait long as a loud roaring command sounded in the night as the battle began.

Just before the battle had begun though one solider swore he was seeing things as he had noticed a running figure sprinting across the sand in the dead of night. He called over to his captain but the sudden impact as the meteorite fell to the earth thundered out into the desert night like a bomb, deafening everyone.

The solider watched wide-eyed as the alien pod almost crushed the sprinting kid and threw her a good 30 feet from her running position. The solider quickly gave up on searching for the phantom image of the girl as he heard a voice sound through the night that made the NEST team soldiers' blood run cold.

When the asteroid fell a loud horrifying voice called out his war cry from the sky as the Autobots and nest team could see bloody red eyes emerging from all around the desert dunes.

"Decepticons attack!" shouted Megatron in anticipating blood lust.

As the fight began gunfire rained down everywhere and colorful cybertronian and human swearing could be heard echoing in the night.

None of the autobots could search for the human child that Optimus had warned them about due to them being much occupied in the moment of battle.

Optimus began fighting with his comrades in battle when he noticed the fallen pod did not activate with the presence of everyone. He dodged yet more bullet fire from some enraged decepticon and landed closer to the pod.

He turned around to examine the shuttle again and noticed that while the shuttle did not move it began to pulsate in pent up energy as something touched it. That something was noticed by not only by him but also by the leading seeker that kept firing at him in blood lusting revenge against his brother.

Optimus gasped while Megatron shouted enraged in their native Cybertronian language.

"STOP INSCET!"

He roared from the sky as they noticed the missing small human from before put her hand against the warm metal of the almost transforming cybertronian.

Optimus fearing for the safety of the small, fragile human child and the unidentified transformer boomed out in a powerful voice in her native language just after Megatron had screamed down from the sky in theirs.

"STOP!" he thundered, but it was already far too late.

Both, warring leaders, one on the ground and one in the sky, watched in shock and confusion as the human female and the crumbling shuttle pod was assaulted by a powerful white, crackling mass of energy from the pod as it engulfed them both in its blinding light.

The bloodcurdling scream that erupted from the young teenage human sounded out in the night like a sharp siren over the swearing and gunfire as it drew many of the transformers and humans attentions alike in the general direction.

Every cybertronian spotted fighting when the crackling energy sent a shockbrust out into the air and they were filled with a familiar energy that all of them, save the two leaders, had not felt in eons.

Suddenly the light from the shuttle pod evaporated into the air like liquid lighting as the human girl that had been engulfed in the raw energy, that the still immobile transformer had emitted, fell to the hard now crystallized sand surrounding the pod.

Though the girl was hidden from view by the smoking crater, smears of blood could be seen in the sliver moonlight spread out across the ground at the craters edge, and flecks of blood shinned on the metallic pod wedged in the massive flaming crack in the ground.

When the light dissipated and the pod still did nothing the fueling fractions stood neck high in confusion as in mid fight were still staring at the pod in anticipation. When the shock and novelty of the discovery wore off the decepticon leader was the first to break the heavy, thick silence and issue a command to his subordinates.

"Take the shuttle pod and retreat, kill all the humans in the way!" roared Megatron as he transformed in the middle of a nose dive and landed just a few yards from the shuttle. The tremor from his massive weight shook the ground, and as if an alarm had gone off everyone immediately sprung into frenzied action yet again.

Optimus sprang forward and began running directly at his brother as he unleashed his fiery metallic blade and donned his battle mask on.

"Protect the shuttle and the humans!" he thundered.

His fist and blade clashed with more decepticons in a struggle as they put up a futile effort to prevent Optimus from reaching the pod before their leader could. Seeing and copying the decepticon's battle plan the autobots began closing in on Megatron and fighting any bot that was hindering their own leader from reaching the shuttle.

Just as Megatron was nearly to the pod he glanced into the crater and scowled at the unconscious human adolescent lying mere feet away from his prize. He growled at the human in disgust as he noted its life force was slowly pooling around it in a sickening manner.

The human female, even though she looked nothing like him, reminded him of the Witwicky boy that had sent him to the well of sparks, who he had grown to hate with almost as much ferocity as his brother.

He briefly debated on which he should do first; take the small shuttle and retreat or torture his brother first with the sight of him crushing the human sparkling while Optimus could do nothing but hopelessly watch.

He opted for the second option, extending his claws over the injured and helpless human as thoughts of the Witwicky human clouded his processor in rage. In his bloodlust he could practically feel his talons ripping into the soft small humans flesh and crushing her bones as the shadow of his clawed hands passed over her and the shuttle.

Suddenly his hand was knocked away and a barge of high heat sabot rounds was delivered right into his chest, curtsey of the US military.

He staggered back in pain and rage, he directed his canons as he was about to blow the humans to pieces if his brother had not tackled him first.

As Megatron and Optimus Prime fought the rest of the NEST team quickly began raining their own gunfire among the decepticons that they could. Epps shouted urgently to Lennox over his radio as he began firing at a decepticon that the motorcycle triplets were having problems with.

"Lennox there's an injured bystander by where you are in the crater!" he shouted to be heard over the gunfire.

Will immediately shouldered his gun as he was covered by his team's gunfire and jumped into the crater. He landed steadily on his feet and immediate ran toward the limp person on the ground and knelt next to her as he began hosting her into his arms as quickly and as gently as he could with adrenaline pounding in him.

As he stood up and noticed his knees and legs were soaked from the puddle he was standing in and called out in desperation over his radio for assistance when he realized the large puddle was nothing but blood.

"I need help down here now!"

Lennox called out again as he realized he couldn't crawl out of the crater with the severely bleeding girl in his arms. Ironhide's face suddenly came into Will's view as he stood over the crater in surprise at the amount of blood he saw and quickly grasped the two humans as he pulled them out of the crater.

"Bumblebee! Get the shuttle pod and let's get these humans back to the motel!"

Ironhide yelled to his smaller, yellow comrade. Bumblebee grunted something in cybertronian and picked up the heavy pod, with their cargo safe the two bots transformed and began racing across the desert dunes from the battlefield.

In the distance the sound of Megatron's booming voice carried out from the battlefield.

"This isn't over Prime I will have my revenge! Decepticons retreat!"

Megatron snarled as he realized his two prizes had been stolen away by the autobots as he transformed into his jet form and flew off. The various decepticons followed their leader's example as they too transformed and raced across the desert and were swallowed up by the night.

"Let the cowards go men, we've won this fight"

Optimus spoke gravely to his soldiers and allies as he sheathed his sword and his radar could no longer sense the decepticons in his range anymore. Some of the autobots and the NEST soldiers cheered as the rest of the autobots began to put away their weapons with sighs of tired gratefulness that no one was killed and the fight was over.

Optimus sighed in relief as well that their confusing mission was a complete success and that no one was critically injured. His comm. Link began going off again and Optimus answered it with a weary sigh.

"**Yes Ironhide, is the shuttle pod secure?"**

"**Optimus Sir",** Ironhide's voice echoed into my processor with uncommon worry and urgency hidden in his tone that made his spark drop.

"**You might want to get yours and Ratchet's sorry aft back over to the hotel, we have a problem**".

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So how ya like it? It's a bit longer than the last one. So feel free to comment if I made the characters to OC or the battle to corny. Like I said comments and reviews are greatly thanked. Btw, if you're a flamer be warned! I fight fire with fire baby! p


	7. Chapter 6

Thank u all for the reviews and adding this story to your alerts! Comments are loved and suggestions treasured! so enjoy!

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Chapter 6:

Previously:

"**You might want to get yours and Ratchet's sorry aft back over to the hotel sir we have a problem**". Ironhide requested gruffly, his tone hiding a complicated mix of emotions that made Optimus frown in worry.

Without questioning his weapons specialist he turned to the group of still relived soldiers and began issuing commands for everyone to begin immediately returning to the main highway then from there to go to the military landing strip hidden by the desert.

As everyone began head counting and transforming to begin the long track back to base, Optimus opened his comm. link as he transformed and drove over to the now ready Ratchet.

"**Ratchet, we have a problem, we are needed back at the hotel, now"**

Sensing the tenseness and worry radiating off his leader Ratchet didn't need to be told twice that this might be some kind of emergency as the semi truck and ambulance raced off across the cold sand.

In less than perhaps ten minutes the two oddly colored transformers peeled into the parking lot, tires screeching and tire tracks marring the lot in the dim glow of the shabby, flickering neon signs. In less than seconds they transformed to their full height.

"What is it Ironhide, Bumblebee?" Optimus demanded,

"Where is the shuttle pod?" Ratchet voiced after him.

"It's here, Bumbulebee's got it" Ironhide replied first in answer to Ratchet question, while bumblebee stepped closer holding the pod in his arms and began playing his radio at a randomly chosen song that chose to describe his thoughts.

"We got it, yea we got it, we've got the beat", sang the Go-Go girls as they blasted from the smallest autobot's speakers as he held the dirt gritted, heavy shuttle pod up triumph.

The weapon specialist looked away from Bumblebee's antics to Ratchet and then met his leader's anxious optics. Prime seemed to sense the unusual strain on his friend's voice processor as he spoke.

"That's not why we called you here" Ironhide replied as his face grew stormy and as if on cue Will Lennox staggered out from underneath one of the trigger happy mech's massive legs, grunting as he supported his prone burden in his sore and tired arms.

Optimus's optic widened in surprise as he realized in the human majors arms was the same adolescent human he had seen earlier in the battle field and just hours before in the same vacant parking lot. Prime felt his spark drop as his optics widen in even further, this time in horror when the light from the flickering motel sign flared briefly to life, exposing just how severe the human youngling was damaged.

Everyone there had been in countless battles and had seen many good soldiers wounded and dead but this girl wasn't even a soldier, or fully grown, still they all winced in shock and disgust as they looked upon the her condition.

The first thing to be noticed by the majority was that the young human was completely and utterly drenched from head to toe in her own blood. The deep, dark, maroon liquid had poured everywhere and left Lennox covered in it as well; but noticeably less so. Deep angry red gashes around her face and knees were apparent against her flesh that had turned a sickening pale gray in the neon light.

The last and most horrifying thing that immediately garbed all the mechs attention was the damage done to her left arm. Will's face twisted in an onslaught of emotions and felt as if he were about to lose his stomach contents all over the already staining crimson pavement as he glazed at the sorry excuse of the poor kid's arm.

The arm from the shoulder down was burned so ferociously it looked like nothing more than brunt coal with slivers of angry red lining within its blackened interior that showed the bits of muscle that hadn't been burned to a crisp. The most prominent features were the small frail looking bones of the hand that still held some charred, dead flesh peeling from the wrist and fingers, exposing clean bone that glowed in the obnoxious flouriest lights and matched the girl's ghostly skin tone.

Ratchet was the first to react and quickly scan as he gently snatched the dead looking teenager from the human major's weary arms. His medical training kicked in as his optics lit to life and began doing advanced looking scans, which looked complex even for a cybertronian, over each inch of this girl's body in haste.

"She hasn't stopped bleeding once, she's lost so much blood everywhere, not to mention how much of it was in the crater." Will informed slowly through his horror and disgust when the girl was jostled from his arms and the scent of burned flesh descended upon his senses like a hawk.

Ratchet expression grew grim as he continued running scans up and down the girl.

"Optimus, Captain Lennox is right this human has lost too much of her vital fluids and she will soon become a casualty of war unless she receives treatment immediately."

"Slag those pit spawn decepticons!" Ironhide suddenly growled in cold rage that quivered in the air as his and Bumblebee's gears clinked and whirled in angry agreement over a private discussion they seemed to be having concerning their rage at the decepticons for harming the small, defenseless, dying human.

To the weapon specialist processor this was unacceptable, he was itching to blow a Con sky high at that very moment, while bumblebee standing a little ways off shuddered slightly as he imaged how easily his own human charge, Sam, could have been in this condition numerous times before.

Their leader's gears and functions were screeching and whirling as well but for a completely different reason then his angered comrades.

In short, Optimus's processor was going into overdrive.

His optics scanned the human again, narrowing in concentration as he searched the vast desert maps he so conveniently pulled from internet files for the nearest medical facility.

Could they even treat her injuries, and how long the girl could last the trip before she succumbed to say injuries?

He tried considering all factors into play but was quickly being left with only one as he watched the small, damaged creature's life fading before him in Ratchet's hands.

Optimus knew what he was about to command of his autobots and human allies was questionable at least, but he knew time was of the essence once more as he noted the human's pained face twist in agony even in her unconsciousness.

He closed his glowing blue optics as recalled Megatron slowly reaching out his clawed digits over the injured human girl in the crater before the NEST team had fired openly at him and Optimus himself had tackled him to the ground.

Anger surged through him as he replayed the scene over in his processor and silently vowed that his and his brother's war would not be the cause of this innocent human's death tonight or any other night.

"Optimus, say something Optimus!" Ironhide's gruff, disgruntled voice brought the towering mech back from the brink of his thoughts and another world away.

Optimus Prime opened his optics in determination and turned addressing more bots and the rest of the NEST that had mysteriously and silently showed up around their bloodied commander in the short time span.

"The human's medical facilities are too far and the extent of her injuries too great. We are left with no choice; autobots were taking the human back to base with us! Autobots roll out!" Optimus commanded with such authority no one said a word of protest, even in their confusion as they shifted into their alt forms and drove off down the deserted desert highway, burning asphalt as they raced into the night.

Ratchet weaved through the human vehicles swiftly as he silently prayed to Primus that he could get to the cargo plane fast enough before the nearly dead human in his back seat would bleed out to her death.

He couldn't understand it but his scans on the girl had picked up something strongly abnormal about this human teenager, though knew he couldn't stop to examine it until she was stabilized. He knew he couldn't put his finger on it but whatever it was it simply fueled his engine and his drive even more to do whatever he could to not let the human in his backseat die tonight.

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I'll admit it, my dreams have always been strange from the get go.

They have always been odd ever since the first dream I had, which I positive was about giant, creepy, pink elephants in spandex suits that floated around me as a baby.

So when I dreamt about running after shooting stars and a really shinny, hot fish scale that barbequed me crisper then chips and sent my burnt dream self to the sun, I wasn't completely perturbed, just mildly disturbed.

I opened my eyes slightly in an half hearted attempt to rid myself of the nightmare and quickly closed then as harsh, sterile lights shinned merciless on my face, making colored spots dance behind my eyelids.

I groaned as I felt a headache start to build in the back of my skull and rolled over to shield my face with the hard, lumpy pillow on my hotel bed against the too bright lights.

The moment I moved my body even the slightest bit I felt as if I had unleashed my own personal little hell.

My eyes flew open, only for me to squeeze them shut again as the florescent lights blinded me again as I bit my lip to keep the shocked and painful screams at bay.

A sudden, horrible screeching sound filtered in my ears; like a mix between metal being tore apart and a screaming infant.

Fire coursed through my veins and into my bones in seconds, I could no longer hold in the pain as I arched my back from my bed and snapped my eyes open not caring about the blinding lights anymore as tears of fear and pain poured down my face in confused desperation.

I gasped as I became momentarily blind and once my body realized my lungs could work I began choking as I screamed and gasped for breath in harmony with the pained wails echoing around me.

Even past the blood pounding in my eardrums my cries and screams seemed weak and muffled to me for some reason; but they did the trick. I heard the sounds of running feet approach my bed and after a few moments my screaming ceased as my throat was too raw to continue and it closed up in pain instead.

The air I gasped for was making me lightheaded and dizzy as my headache sky rocketed to a full blow migraine when I looked blindly around me to find one of the chaperons from the trip and instead found concerned trepid faces in mint green scrubs looking fearfully back at me.

Someone began pushing through them and to my surprise a buff looking guy in a military outfit jogged over to me, anger and worry was etched onto his face as clear as day.

"Why wasn't I notified right away!" the angry soldier yelled out. My attention was drawn away from him as I shut my eyes again and I tried to ignore the strange people watching me endure my private little show of suffering**.**

'**And even after being screamed at they're all too frozen to lift a finger.'**

My attention briefly wandered for a moment as I heard the military grunt shout out commands at the scrubs and yell out the strangest name I have yet to ever have heard.

"Somebody get Ratchet now!" the harden grunt bellowed down the hallway.

'**Where am I? Who are these people?**' I questioned in a desperate attempt to get my mind away from the pain. It didn't work and my pain simply sky rocketed even more in spite of my attempts.

Suddenly pounded assaulted my ears as if someone were beating a drum next to my head and I could feel the ground tremor under me. They increased and worked in rhythm as if they were giant footsteps, they stopped as I dark shadow loomed over my closed vision and blocked out those accursed lights.

"Ratchet we don't know what to give her. We may need more of the drugs you gave her before, she's going into shock" a new voice spook quickly as they stumbled over their words.

I felt sudden prickling sensations all over and shivered as I felt coldness sweep all over and inside my body. It felt so violating that I twisted around trying to shake it off while making me yelp in pain at every move I made.

"Hold her down we can't have her harming herself" a loud booming voice commanded that echoed painfully in the back of my skull.

I screamed as the fiery pain returned when numerous cold hands roughly held me down.

"Gently!" boomed the loud voice again and I winced as the pain made my heart and head pound in agonizing synchronization. All too quickly the hands loosened but held their grip and a sharp pain stabbed my stomach and the right crook of my elbow.

'**Shots'** I realized as the searing pain in my body seemed to lessen and ebb away from my tolerance threshold in a couple of seconds.

The relief I felt was like a tsunami that almost swept me away in a flood of numbing happiness that would have brought me to tears if I wasn't so tired.

I felt myself go limp and my worry ebbed away when the hands holding me went away and as I began falling back into my deep sleep I could hear the booming voice again having a conversation with another voice this one seemed as if it were being spoken through a sketchy radio.

"**What was that Ratchet? It sounded like the human was being offlined!"** a gruff voice barked out, irritated.

"It was nothing Ironhide, but I need you to keep an optic on her and inform me if she becomes conscious again, I need to speak with Prime."

The voice in the room, who I assume was this Ratchet guy, requested. There was silence then some grumbling and then after a moment a response.

"**Can't the humans deal with it!"** the voice, who I now can say was Ironhide growled out, in a mix of some angry and somewhat annoyance.

"**I do not trust them to not panic again and allow the distressed human to cause more harm herself than she already has" **was Ratchet's somewhat snippy reply.

"**Request acknowledged, I will be there shortly**" Ironhide's staticy voice huffed after another short pause and then the crackling of the radio stopped all together as the tremors started up again then grew fainter and disappeared all together.

As I felt the strange tremors cease I tried fighting against the numbing sedative as I groggily went from panicking to normal thoughts then semi awareness as I kept repeating questions to myself that I had no answers for.

'**Were am I again? Am I in trouble, did I get hurt?'** my mind sluggishly warped around the questions and knowing full well now I was badly injured, it answered at least one of them.

'**Where are the students, teachers, Sandy, have they gone up and left me in some kind of hospital in the middle of Nevada!'**

The thoughts stopped coming after that as my mind fogged over and sleep began tugging rather forcefully at my conscious. The tell tale shaking and pounding suddenly returned and began growing louder every second as whatever it was drew closer. I knew any other rational person would be screaming their head off still, terrified out of their wits, but I couldn't muster the energy to care at this point as I started to fall into sleep's enticing calls.

"Hey...The wired screeching stopped" I slurred out loud, noticing its absence rather randomly yet quickly as some disconnected part of my brain seemed to be remembering it this whole time and then my body went completely limp and my head drooped at an awkward angle as I succumbed to the blessed darkness of sleep's numb crushing embrace.

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Longer chapters coming up I swear. Reviews?


	8. Chapter 7

Chapter: 7

It was a tell tale peaceful day as bits of sunlight streamed down from the small window within my cozy room.

My eyelids shifted from sleep as I groggily open them for a moment and then snuggled my freckled nose deeper into my soft, fluffy pillow. The sunlight pouring from my window cast odd shadows at various angles around my room, making the cherry wooden floor gleam with the morning light, and seemed to make my sea green walls vibrate in soft hues along my cream colored, tangled bed sheets.

The strangely, sweaty sheets stuck to my skin uncomfortably and the moisture in the air reminded me of my home on a normally hot summer day back in Florida, at least when the damn air conditioner would stop working for a while.

From across our adjacent room I suddenly heard my baby brother crying piteously, I groaned as I rubbed my face deeper in my bed spread while his soft moaning progressed. Not wanting to completely awaken I inhaled deeply into my pillow, savoring the familiar smells of smoky, hazel witch cinnamon and the crisp ocean breeze in my sheets.

I frowned into my pillow as my left arm started burning a little and the warmth and scents started to fade away.

'**What's going on?'**

I blearily wondered as I struggled with the sheets stuck around me. The air suddenly became cold and the pillow began reeking of a disgusting mixture sweat and spilt acidly medicine. Somewhere in the distance my brother's crying increased to a high-pitched wailing.

Worry flooded through me, like the worrywart of a big sister I was. I fought myself out the tangle of bed sheets and fell off the bed and crashed onto the hard, cold floor.

I bit my tongue when I landed on my arm and felt a horrid amount of immense pain shoot through my body as my left arm felt as if I had stuck it inside a flaming furnace and it had exploded into fleshy bits.

I should have cried or screamed out loud for all I was worth but I shocked myself as I only weakly struggled to my feet without a sound; driven my some compelling force.

I bit my lip as the feeling of warm liquid slid down from my mouth from where I bit my tongue. I could feel the same stuff running down my burning arm in small rivers.

I watched the warm blood run down my chin and dribble onto the moonlit floor by my feet in big, fat droplets.

Then for whatever reason that was beyond me I began struggling to walk.

Every step I took on the ice-cold tile made walking almost unbearable as the iciness bit into the soles of my feet. The first few steps I took made my legs wobble like Jell-O and made my bones feel like they were splintering under the weight of my own body.

I kept walking pushing past the pain for what felt like eons as I raced towards the crying with a numbing sense of extreme urgency that far surpassed my own bodily needs. As fast as I could I hobbled past the numerous doors and down countless hallways, never meeting or seeing another living soul the whole time.

'**It's the dead of night everyone is probably asleep'**

I realized as I noticed the pale moonlight that streamed through the glass windows positioned in throughout the hallways; making my shadow dance across the bleached walls as I rushed by.

Finally I climbed a set of stairs and plowed through yet another metal door to only stumble into an enormous hanger filled with strange computers, vehicles and other foreign things I had never seen before in my life.

The hanger had no windows and the lamplights that hung from the high ceiling where either turned off or immensely dimmed. I had to blink for a couple of moments to adjust from the lack of moonlight as I still ran around blindly with my arms thrown out in front of me.

I paused in mild confusion when my eyes finally adjusted as I noticed a few cars that stood out like sore thumbs that didn't look like most of the military personnel vehicles scattered around the hanger. Maybe three or four of the strangely colored cars of all shapes and size were parked in a private looking indoor parking lot in the farthest corner to my right, they all seemed to be shrouded by eerie shadows.

I shook my throbbing head in pain when the crying increased to a painful decibel and I practically ran up another flight of stairs and across the metal catwalk that spanned across the room to get to the door that seemed to lead to the wailing sounds on the second floor above me.

When pushing with all my might against the heavy metal door I shook my head again when the questions involving the strange cars somehow kept creeping from the back of mind forebodingly.

'**I can worry why they have sports cars here later, right now I have to find who's crying'**

The door finally gave way with a loud scraping sound that echoed across the hallway but stopped only halfway open. Gritting my teeth in frustration I tried to ignore the pain as I squeezed myself past the narrow crack that was just big enough for my small self to slip through.

I hobbled down the hallway some more and limped over to a shadowed section of the end of the corridor. I took a couple steps to my left and then forward, then too late to realize fully what was going on, my foot stepped down on nothing but air and I yelped as I fell through a tile space in the floor and down into an open ventilation shaft.

My body made hollow sounds as I hit the metal sides, and then with a loud thud I fell on my back against a ceiling grate. I was about to sigh in relief when I felt the grate begin to give way and then with a loud screech, the grate I had landed on caved through, and I fell some feet down the shaft and hit a hard porcelain floor.

I bit my scabbed lip, drawing more blood as I held back more screams when another wave of fresh pain rolled down my spine and burned through my arm like fire. I laid sprawled out limply on my back as I let the pain run its course while the horrendous crying seemed louder than ever.

I groaned painfully before I attempted to regain my breath and as I opened my eyes I felt lightheaded and dizzy.

A soft bluish light quickly caught my attention from the corner of the room I had fallen into as I sat up and wearily looked around. Blinking away my nausea I quickly sprang up, the quietness in the air was interrupted as I suddenly stumbled again as I tried to regain my balance. I looked up and my mouth gaped open as I saw the strangest sight.

A metallic, shining pod seemed to be floating in midair in sheen, virtual looking casing that hummed as bits of electrical currents seemed to race randomly across its dimly glowing, metallic surface.

I had never seen something like this before and my feet began moving by their own accord; like invisible ropes were woven around my legs making them walk in synchronization in slow and silent steps toward the alien like machine. As I was gravitating towards it I contemplated why the foreign object I was being drawn too looked extremely familiar and suddenly it felt completely vital to my sanity that I in that moment I had to reach out and touch the strange object, if not to comfort me then someone else.

Only mere feet from its soft, pulsing metal surface I let my left arm start to extend towards its smooth, shiny surface in a numbed need. Halfway to touching it I looked down and paused when I got a good look at my arm as it reflected in the pale eerie glow. It was the same arm that had been paining me so much since I woke up, it had to be.

In the mixed bluish glowing from the pod the light reviled that my arm was bandaged with casts and metal poles stuck out from the pale green plaster pasted around my forearm at odd angles. Most of the putrid mint green color was being drowned out in a crude brown blood stains as they enveloped the whole of my arm and started from my shoulder then quickly began reached down towards the tips of my fingers.

I had regretted not realizing how bad the condition of my arm had been in as soon I started to walk towards the thing when the numbing feeling of adrenaline began to fade and the flowing fire started to creep back into my fingers, and slowly but surely it fled into the whole of my left arm.

I groaned as I finally reached the pod and my feet slipped on the smooth floor as I leaned forward too far and with a pained gasp I tripped and crashed onto my side against the crackling machine. I slumped back against the warm, pulsing metal as I clutched my wrist tightly in a feeble attempt to hold back the pain from flowing and enveloping my entire arm.

A humming sounded behind me, my head began to buzz as the pod began to vibrate the hairs on the back of my neck stood up as I heard the grinding and clink of metal while my ear was pressed against its warm metal surface. The metal then gave way underneath my shoulder and I had to catch myself on my hands from a beautiful close encounter between the floor and my face when my shoulder rest disappeared from under me.

I tilted my head upwards and looked up to watch as the pod seemed to shrink in on itself and the metal started to twisted and disappear as it unfolded like a giant Rubik cube right before my eyes. I sucked in a sharp breath and my muscles tensed up in case of fleeing as fast as I currently could as the bluish light that had enveloped the pod suddenly shone harshly and then sputtered before fading completely leaving something squirming within its now exposed center.

Whatever it was it began crying its head off as its form of protection disappeared. Curiosity got the better of me as I wiggled my way across the floor and I heaved myself over the side of what I figured was a shuttle of some sort.

As I peeked hesitantly over, my fingers clutched the cold metal as I struggled to keep the balance on my knees while I peeped over the side. The center seemed to be some sort of cockpit with a small mass the size of a small toddler struggling around with random wires that had tangled around its legs.

I frowned when I noticed the wires and tubes were scattered everywhere among the cockpit and some of them began leaking acidic smelling, bright blue liquid. I figured that the strange liquid was something I didn't want touching me or whatever creature was in the shuttle either, so with that knowledge I pushed myself upward and leaned against the side with a grunt and garbed the wires that weren't leaking and began pulling them away from the kicking of what I assumed was the silver mass's flawing legs.

As soon as it was freed it stopped flawing and sobbing as it stood perfectly still. I froze, my fingers still lightly hovering over the strange, small metallic creature and I bit my lip as my stomach dropped to my feet.

'**Did I do something wrong'**, I looked around widely looking for some kind of a wire I wasn't supposed to pull or another senseless mistake I had made. I poked it and widened my eyes when it didn't respond.

'**Oh no, Oh man, did I kill it!'**

I wondered as fear and pain began clouding my vision. I moved in closer to what I thought was the creature's face to check for any signs of breathing, I could hear something similar to air running through vents and I could feel air being blown across from my face.

Suddenly twin bright blue lights flickered on and illuminated the creature's small face. The blue twin lights held my gaze and I could see emotions swimming through them and with a painful jolt I realized these were the small metallic being's eyes that were set in its small and absolutely human looking features made up this emotional metallic face.

I gasped as I fully understood then that the small alien creature looked very similar to a small, metal, humanoid, infant. I still hesitated as it locked on to my face and reached up for me as it started at me for a moment while letting out a strange chirping sound.

Then as it finally noted that I made no move on my part to offer comfort it began to quiver its small metallic mouth and then softly it whimpered, then let out a strange, alien sounding, gut-clenching wail of sadness that echoed around the room.

"_N-no way-y"_ I stuttered out as I covered my ears from the harsh sounds that scraped against my eardrums.

'**It's not just an alien, it's an alien baby!' **I gasped as I mentally finished my train of thought

A wave of understanding washed over me as I understood the look on its heartbroken face.

It was abandoned, lonely, frightened and needed someone to hold it. I felt guilt sit in my stomach as I realized I had just turned down that small, simple, innocent request so heartlessly.

Ignoring the pain in my legs and arms I quickly picked up the wriggling baby alien and held it close to myself as I fell back down on my knees to the ground like a rock with the newly added weight of the creature curled up to my chest.

Recognition lit in my eyes as I remembered many situations similar to this with my own infant brother at home. My mind began conjuring images of when he would wake the house up with his nightmares in the dead of night and wouldn't go back to sleep until my mother or I rocked him back to his previous slumber in the old brown rocking chair that sat underneath his bedroom window.

Recalling on experience I curled the heavy weight in my arms against my chest and hugged my legs against the creature, pressing it to my stomach and effectively shielding the small creature huddled against me from the creeping cold that had been biting into my legs. I ignored the strain on my stiff muscles as I rocked from side to side and began to sing comforting words and hum melodies from as many lullabies I could pull up from the crevasses of my memories that I had learned to sooth my brother.

Time seemed to tick by slowly and stop as both me and the form bundled to my chest felt the heavy, irresistible pull of unconsciousness. I could sense the baby felt comforted and satisfied as it felt the steady lull of my heartbeat. It was a lullaby that was the most soothing sound I could ever produce, and slowly but surely the baby alien stopped making noises as it went silent and limp in my arms.

It was just like the many nights when I had found myself steadily rocking back and forth on that old antique rocking chair in this same position before under the pale moonlight that would stream through my brother's bedroom window. I quickly collapsed and fell asleep with the small ball of warmth pressed hard to my chest.

* * *

Morning quickly fell on the small tell tale beautiful tropical island of Diego Garcia and the normal hustle and bustle of the day at the NEST base was in full swing.

Military personnel were scattered everywhere, scouting the base, jogging around to complete orders from their higher authorities, or catch a measly breakfast from the mess hall before being shoved out, food in mouth, to be bossed around to begin doing orders.

Heavy footsteps from the standard issued military steel toed boots echoed across the linoleum tiled floors and the sound of deep, baritone voices having boisterous conversations could be heard down the various hallways leading towards the main hanger.

Suddenly a few doors down from a small group of three talkative soldiers a tall, lanky, middle aged man rushed around a sharp corner and quickly skidded to a stop a few feet from the group of men and through his labored breaths started gasping out intelligible things as fast as he could get his tongue around the words flying from his mouth. One of the most muscled men in the group quickly gripped the sputtering doctor by the shoulders and shook him roughly to gain his attention.

"_Clam down man, take it easy, we can't understand anything your saying."_ Epps demanded calmly with a when he saw the flustered look on the medic's face.

"_One of you alert… (Huff) the rest of the base... (Huff) an injured patient... (Huff) escaped!"_ the man yelled flustered as he threw his hands up in nervousness. Epps released the medic's shoulders and quickly turned towards the two other soldiers and nodded to them as they both turned around and began running towards the main autobot hanger they had just came from.

The ebony skinned soldier jogged down the hallway as the doctor assistant beckoned him down the bright florescently lighted hallway.

As they neared towards the to the ajar last door on the right side the soldier took notice of the small drops of brownish substance leading away from the door and the strong scent of copper waffling from the open door.

When they walked into the room Epps eyes widen in surprise as he took in the bloody white bed sheets and puddles spattered onto the floor. The metallic, coppery smell made them both cover their noses when the familiar stench that both the soldier and doctor were very accustomed too intensified tenfold as they stepped through the threshold of the room to investigate.

Epps frowned as he mentally justified the medic's concern when he stepped forward and took a doubled take of the room he knew the girl from the Nevada incident was supposed to be in.

"_Damn it, Ratchet's going to be pissed"_

The sound of a metal door swing wildly opened echoed across the majority of the normally busy room and the sound of the men stumbling over each other echoed even louder in the odd silence.

As the two men burst into the main hanger way in their search for their seemingly absent captain they almost collided with a towering metal leg with dancing flames crisscrossing its sides.

Optimus Prime glanced down from his conversation to look at the disgruntled humans that almost had collusion with his leg's frame and watched patiently as their neck jostled back and their eyes widen as they gazed upwards before they broke from the shock of almost running into the towering alien leader's leg and they both saluted him respectfully.

Captain Lennox looked down as well at the soldiers over the catwalk he was using; mild irritation could be seen on his face for being interrupted in mid conversation with the autobot leader as he yelled down to the men.

_"What's the big hurry boys, looking for breakfast?"_ Will Lennox halfheartedly joked from his perch above. As they heard their captain yell to be heard from the catwalk they both spun around and respectfully saluted him as well**.**

"_Captain Lennox, sir, one the doctors on staff came to us rambling about a missing patient he believed escaped onto the base", _exclaimed one of the men as they lowered their arms from saluting.

Grim understanding suddenly flashed across Optimus's optics as Lennox's brows furrowed for only a split second in confusion and then arched up in surprise as he remembered the only patient that base currently had in the med bay.

The gears around Optimus's head whirled as he reopened his comm. link trying to contact one of his followers and below Lennox dipped his head as he cursed underneath his breath.

He snapped his attention back to the two new recruits who were standing idly, nervously shuffling their feet as they awaited further orders.

"_Well don't just stand ther_e!" he barked. _"Round up a search party and find her!"_ the soldiers jumped at the sudden hardness in their commander's tone but without a second to spare both men sprinted off.

"_Damn it_" he growled_ "how the hell did she get out?", _Will sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration.

"_I am not sure" _Optimus's voice rumbled overhead as he cut his static communication lines**. **_"I have alerted the rest of the autobots, they are currently seeking the human child as we speak." _

Suddenly thunderous crashes could be heard all around followed by a series of angry strange alien clicks, whistles, and shrieks echoed across the whole base.

"_You've already told Ratchet I'm guessing" _A strangled yet nervous chuckle could be heard from Will as the sounds reverberated around the metal hanger and made its walls shake briefly for a few moments.

"_Yes, he is not pleased about the young human running around the base" _Optimus nodded as more angry cybertornian language echoed across the base.

Will snorted as he repressed a shudder while he imaged the well told fury of the neon ambulance hummer had when one of his patients would sneak out of his med bay.

"_I can image"_ he replied drily as he noticed, from his perch on the catwalk, his second in command darting towards him, dragging a practically frazzled looking medic alongside him as well.

Epps looked up at Will with a frown marinated onto his face.

_"This is the doctor that we ran into his name is Mark Roberts"_ Epps rushed out as he paused to caught his breath from his earlier sprint to where the two previous soldiers informed him where he would find Lennox.

Will frowned again when he saw the worry pinched on Epps features. Optimus took a step closer to the tense humans next to him and cleared his throat

_"Doctor Mark Roberts what is the extent if this girls condition?", _he questioned as he knelt down to the human's eye level.

"_Well, there was a lot of blood"_ Epps seemed to have caught his breath as he added to whatever the doctors was about to say.

Will gave him a pointed look at his detailed doctor Roberts craned his neck to gaze fearfully at the immense, towering alien robot and shook slightly.

Some of his discomfort could be seen on his face and in his body language as he wrung his hands nervously before clearing his throat.

"_Well she's seems to be suffering serious blood loss and by the amount of blood this soldier mentioned previously suggests that her injuries have not healed properly yet"_ The aura in the room seemed to be thick as water with tension and the silence in the air seemed to feel as if you could slice through it butter.

The tell tale buzzing frequency, too low for the human ears to hear, began ringing within Optimus's processor as his comm. link went off. He stood up after obtaining his answer and opened the impatiently ringing link, sighing wearily to himself as chaotic noises sounded from the other end of the line.

"_**Ratchet" **_Optimus warned in a stern voice as more choice words flew over the link and a monstrous crash rang out before he received an aggravated reply.

"_**Optimus, what have you learned**__?"_ Ratchet questioned mildly as more crashing noises sounded from his end of the link.

_**"The youngling seems to be suffering severe blood loss and the human medic suggested that her injuries may have reopened." **_An aggravated sigh echoed from ratchet**.**

**"**_**This is what I feared would happened. If that is the case then we don't have much time before her injuries become critical. There is a high percentage that she may become violent from waking in new surroundings, she is most likely disoriented and highly confused and my lash out in her fear or cause harm to herself." **_Optimus frowned as he pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration as worry began worming into his spark as the thoughts of the small human they had saved, quietly bleeding out her life fluids on the floor somewhere.

"**Thank you Ratchet I will inform the humans, they are rounding up their search party now as we speak. Over and out."**

Returning his attention to the humans now collecting by his feet he kneeled down yet again, their attentions were brought to him as his huge frame loomed over them and cast a dark shadow.

"_Commander Lennox, there is a risk that the child will be skittish and easily frightened but it remains imperative we find the girl quickly"_ at Lennox's confused face he continued _"Ratchet believes that we may_ _be running out of critical time"_

Grim understanding dawned on his features as he nodded towards the Autobot leader.

_"Understood, Optimus_"

Will turned to the growing collective group of soldiers, pulled from their mandatory tasks of the morning to assist in the search party.

_"Alright men, Spilt into teams of four and team up with an autobot. You know which sections of the base you are assigned to comb out, if you find anything connect over channel two on your radio's and report. Now go!" _Jumping to commands the humans and autobots spilt up into their respective parties and sped out of the hanger in haste.

Two men flanked Epps as they ran up the catwalk and joined Lennox.

_"We take this side of the building"_ Lennox spoke as he regarded the two new men. Without any more words the men began running towards the doors and out into two separate hallways.

Optimus stood there as he watched the humans hustle into the hallways and begin their search. As he watched them something odd began sounding from his over sensitive audio receptors. Optimus frowned as he strolled closer to the wall the humans had disappeared behind and listened closely.

The noise was all too familiar to his processor's memory banks but he couldn't quite put his digit on it.

Suddenly dawning on a plan he activated his scanners and let his heightened senses roam the building before stiffening as his scanners picked up a small, unknown spark signature alarming close to his position.

In less than a couple seconds Optimus reconnected his comm. link with the grumpy head autobot medic and waited for less than a human second before they were engaged in an urgent conversation and then Optimus connected a message to all the autobots that made them spontaneously spring into action, despite the humans around them.

'**Autobots report to the shuttle pod's holding bay there is a new and unidentifiable spark signature, the mysterious mech has awaken from their status lock, do not engage until we know who they are!'**

Quickly connecting with the human's radio waves he switched onto the channel the NEST team was using and connected his frequency to speak as Will answered his crackling radio.

"_Report?"_ Will questioned the unknown caller, assuming it was another soldier.

"_**William, there is an unknown Cybertornian roaming around the complex, collect your men and evacuate this building"**_ Lennox paled as he listened to Optimus command intently.

"_Is it a Decepticon?" _he grunted as he lowered gaze and watched his hand reflexively tightened its grip on the gritty, black gun holster strapped to his leg.

Suddenly he noticed the floor underneath his foot was a large dark, maroon colored stain; looking downwards he noted the stains lead a makeshift trail that had lead from the sole of his boot, down the hallway and around a closed off section of the building.

Frowning he jogged down the shadowed hallway and followed the dark stains beneath him. As his feet moved on their own accord, his eyes never left the ground as he followed the growing trail of stains, good thing too.

Stopping as he made a sharp left he quickly held onto the wall railing as he quickly observed a gaping hole in the tile ahead of him, he had nearly fallen into it too.

Walking cautiously closer and peering into the deep hole he grimly noted even more browning spots along its sides, he even knocked on the side of one wall, earning himself an echoing, hollow sound vibrating back to him when he rasped his knuckles against the cold metal shaft.

"_**We are not certain but autobots are surrounding the building now so I implore you and your men to quickly evacuate so as not to be caught in the fray"**_

"_I don't think so Optimus, I've just found an open air vent in the floor. I think the girl fell through it during the night and is stuck in the floor below me." _Knocking once more against the metal walls of the airshaft and after a moment of debating he clutched his gun to his chest and swung his legs over the wide dark hole before him.

The only sound Lennox received in reply was that of the confusion of gears whirling around Optimus's head that could be heard from the radio link as the seasoned autobot leader began going through different thoughts, possibilities, and questions all at once. His alt form raced faster to the back of the fairly large building, taking brief shortcuts through the unpaved jungle in his attempts to get to his destination faster.

"_**Where is your location, captain Lennox?"**_ Optimus rushed out as he revved his engine with a roar in anxiety.

Lennox paused for a moment as he considered the question. _"I'm within in the old construction site and this air vent runs downwards, so this thing would have to lead too…"_

"_**The shuttle holding bay**__"_ both human and autobot commanders answered their own question as they voiced the same answer in unison.

With his legs still dangling over the gaping vent Lennox fingered his radio's earpiece subconsciously and then twisted around to shout down the hallway to his men to signal his location before turning forwards and taking a deep breath.

"_Alright. Optimus I'm going down there to find the girl!" _and with that he pushed himself off the floor and flung himself downwards into the dark, deep, shoot.

The sudden cold wind rushing past him bit into the exposed flesh of his arms and face as he fell down the tight space and crashed loudly into an air duct below.

Grabbing onto the sides of a previously opened metal grate, he nearly missed landing straight through the of the air duct he was currently hanging from and splattering onto the hard floor below.

Will winced as he looked down to the ground at his near brush with death as he hung limply onto the sides of the grate's opening before stealthily yet silently dropping to the unforgiving floor. Pausing a moment he held his breath as he waited in his crouched position in the center of the room for something to attack him from the flickering shadows that encompassed the whole room.

When nothing came after a few moments he silently stood and took out his automatic sniper from his back and watched the strange autobot enhanced radar like device that was strapped to his rifle as it started to hum to life.

As the greenish screen flickered on it began to beep forebodingly as it picked up a heat signature from the surrounding shadows. Holding the rifle before his form he waved the device in different directions like a metal detector before the soft beeping noise increased in tempo as he pointed it towards a certain corner. Taking a cautious step forward he debated against his better judgment and called out into the darkness.

"_Hey! Hello? Who's over there_?" he demanded in a steady, neutral tone. Raising his rifle when he didn't get an answer, he carefully inched his way into the dark shadowed corner suddenly weary of an ambush as his radar began beeping more frantically.

His metal-toed boots echoed painfully loud with every step he took in his ears despite how lightly on his feet he was inching forwards. Feeling the suspension squeezing his chest he flickered off his radar as it beeping rapidly, signaling the heat signature was feet from him now. As the silence smoothed the dark air around him now he took another breath in growing anticipation and switched on the headlight that was connected to the top of his sniper.

The light scattered the shadows and lit a small pool of brightly lit light a few feet on the floor before him and Will gaped and winced at what he saw.

The nameless girl they had rescued from the Nevada desert before sat there leaning against the strange cybertornian pod that the autobots had also taken from the desert. From what he noticed of the shuttle he realized with a jolt that it had been activated an opened quite recently. Snapping his head around the room he quickly raised his rifle yet again as his adjusted eyes peered through the darkness.

After a minute will let out a long sigh as he relaxed his hold on the gun ever so slightly as he assumed whatever had occupied the shuttle had left and that there was no immediate danger.

Looking down he noticed that metal and transparent tubes of all lengths and sizes were scattered within and around the alien shuttle; some tangled around the girl's legs and some had or will still leaking bright pink energon all over the ground and mostly within the ship itself.

Quickly pointing and placing the light attached to his gun on the ground he rushed towards the teenager in front of him and knelled in front of her before running his hand trough her dirty, blood crusted hair and as softly as he dared he began pressing his fingers against the soft, hollow crock of her bent neck.

After feeling the faint but steady pulse drum underneath his fingertips he let out another breath he hadn't realized he had been holding as he let the slow thick greenish vein of blood bulging in the light from underneath the kid's pale neck assure him that she was alive and wouldn't die any time soon.

Looking around her body he concluded she wasn't more seriously injured then previously and ignoring the slick liquid that drenched the military colored gown she was huddled under he tired to lift her but grunted instead when her unmoving form didn't budge.

"_What the hell?"_ Lennox complained as he rubbed his back slightly.

Taking another good look at the prone figure in front of him, he studied her for something that must have been weighing her petite body down with such an immense weight.

Glancing at her again he noticed she was curled around something that seemed fairly large and metallic.

Lending down and gingerly untangling her arms he moved her arms and then the curtain of dirty blonde hair that hung limply over her shoulder away to see what she had curled in a fetal position around.

Suddenly Lennox dropped her arms in shock and jumped a foot back as his eyes widen in surprise at the other form huddled against the kid's chest in its own fetal position.

Expressions of shock, confusion and total disbelieve were carved into his features and he scrambled to find the wire piece he had accidently dropped in his earlier fall down the shaft. After of moment of blindly searching he found and hastily snatched up his device as he demanded breathlessly for assistance into the tiny speaker; praying that anyone of the autobots would hear him. A rumbling voice like thunder answered him as Ironhide came onto the radio transmission.

"_**What is it Will, is it a Decepticon?"**_ Ironhide barked out as his alt form tensed with worry as he noticed the normally strong human's vocal cords wavered slightly in his rush of emotion.

"_No Ironhide there is no decepticon"_ Will assured the giant canon wielding mech as he tried to control the emotions in his voice. Ironhide visibly sighed in relief but growled in annoyance at Will through the radio channel.

"**Then what the pit is wrong with you human?" **Ironhide bellowed as his annoyance took hold of him. He listened as ice cold dread suddenly started to seep into his spark as Will paused for the longest time before swallowing nervously.

_You're never going to believe what I'm about to tell you, Hide"_ Lennox choked out in shock as he glanced back at the unconscious girl's face as she slept peacefully on the floor with the small ball of metal curled up to her chest; completely unaware of the absolute hell and utter confusion her little discovery was about to unleash on all the transformers alike.

* * *

Thank you sweet god it is finished and updated!


	9. Chapter 8

Chapter: 8

A heavy gasping was the only sound heard from within the corner of the large room. The noise echoed loudly in the heavy silence as the metallic sheen of the steel walls glistened ominously in the strong ray of light from the discarded sniper scope. Given everything all together it produced a very uneasy effect on the pale, conscious; figure crouched tensely against the wall.

Lennox's pale hands clutched the small black mouthpiece tightly; the small pieces of plastic and bits of metal groaned under the pressure as they threatened to break under the militia's harsh, iron, hard grip. Restless blue eyes shifted restlessly from the small radio in his hand to the other figure lying prone in the corner.

Swallowing thickly Lennox thought hard about his next words as his radio receiver that despite its smallness, unleashed a series of loud crackling sound from its cold metal framework that drifted across the empty room.

"Ironhide…does your kind...produce infant offspring?" The silence from the transmission link was deafening as Lennox swallowed hard in anticipation.

"**What in the pit do you mean by ****that**** Human!" **Ironhide bellowed.

Lennox wasn't expecting such a fiery response when the black transmitting wire shook violently in his grasp, which Ironhide's booming voice had exploded through. Though, the tiny wire speaker could prove no justice to how loud the bot really had thundered just outside the building in his disbelief.

Suddenly a new voice intercepted the transmission waves and more faint crackling noises could be heard before the grave commandeering voice of Optimus Prime cut through the thick silence of the room.

"**Captain Lennox can you evacuate the child to safety?"** he pressed.

Lennox crawled over slowly to the unconscious teenager and gently laid a clammy hand on top of her forehead; he frowned as worry pervaded through him once he felt the child's damp and fevered skin.

"Negative Optimus, this…thing is sitting on top of her and it weighs a ton, I can't move either of them." He suddenly lunged for his sniper again and with numbed fingered he switched his frequency to a second channel as he called over the rest of the human soldiers to assist him in the shuttle holding bay.

"Find a way in here men and bring a stretcher while you're at it" He remarked as an afterthought, "Break off, the search is over".

Will remained crouched in his same position for a few moments and stared hesitantly and sympathetically at the kid's sprawled out in a crumpled heap in front of him.

Cautiously he began wiping away the perspiration that had pervaded the girl's forehead as the last reactions of shock left his frame completely.

His frown deepen once his hand meet a slightly chilled and crummy substance that seemed to originate from her scalp and become sticky and overwhelmingly strong when mixed with her sweat.

"Tell Ratchet to be ready the kid needs medical and attention fast" He warned the autobot leader once he removed his hand from the kid's fevered forehead and had realized it was caked in a crusty layer of dried blood. Setting aside his radio wire, he paused as he stood and glanced around the room, looking for another exit besides the bared door and the air chute he, and he assumed the girl, had previously fallen down.

'**She must have hit her head pretty hard coming down that chute'**

He winced as he imaged how painful it must have been to have hit the hard porcelain head on once she fell through the metal grate above.

His painful yet long musingly were cut short once he could hear the sound of multiple footfalls penetrating the quiet stillness of the otherwise deserted hallways just outside the gleaming metal door. Abruptly the door screeched open and a group of armed soldiers poured in and held the snipers ready for any dangerous threat they might have encountered.

Their lights flooded the dark room and the odd yet confusing sight for the soldiers was shocking if not more as a few open mouths that hung open in disbelief were a testament to the soldiers' bewilderment. Noticing the soldiers' hesitance Lennox quickly grew annoyed with them.

"Take a picture it will last longer" he bit out impatiently as a few of the braver men of the squad attentively approached the sleeping duo that were curled together against the shuttle pod and begun painstakingly extracting the teen from her iron grip on the miniature transformer.

"Take her back to the medical ward now" Lennox ordered sternly as they loaded up the still disturbingly blood encrusted adolescent onto the stretcher.

"And lock her door this time!" he yelled after them as they whisked the child away.

In all their hurry no one really noticed the small whimpers that emanated from the unconscious girl's throat and the higher then human hearing pitch whining that the followed after the girl's retreating from the infant like transformer.

Placing the still sleeping small, cybertornian, creature on a metal gurney it was transported towards the main hanger bay in a matter of minutes, despite its weight. Collapsing in a huff once they all safely navigated their way through the twisting halls and winding maze of the deceptive floors of construction, Will leaned against a wall as his second in command, Epps, approached him.

"Yo, do you need to get checked up too?" Epps question jokingly as he took a seat next to him. Lennox groaned warily as he rubbed his temples.

"I heard from one of the guys that you fell a couple stories through a vent?" The questioning raise on the mahogany soldier's brow and his slightly widened eyes showed his confused yet amused expression as well at his friend's heroism.

"Nah, I'm alright it's that kid I'm worried about; I'm pretty sure she took one hell of a fall to her head." He frowned as he replayed his own brief brush with death as he almost fell straight through the broken air duct and narrowly avoid becoming a military pancake.

Will chuckled as he pushed off the wall he had been resting against and begun to follow his rescue squad outside to explain to the Autobots just what exactly happened; or at least what he could assume by until the girl woke up and told them for herself.

He stopped abruptly as that last though played out before his mind.

'**Oh man, she ****will**** have to explain everything to them!'**

He scratched his head nervously as it occurred to him that even though this kid had already meet one type of autobot, she had never met any of them fully conscious; nor would she even begin to contemplate who they were exactly.

Remembering his own first encounter with one of their kind a couple years back he shuddered at the grizzly first encounter he and Epps had over in the Middle Eastern military base with the now deceased decepticon they had both worked to bring down during mission city.

Wasn't his name Blackout or something?

Lennox shook his head to disregard his useless train of through as he stepped outside into the fresh mid-morning air and began to prepare his explanation to the anxious Autobot leader waiting uneasily just outside.

* * *

'**Warmth…safety… protect'**

'**Uhg, what'?**

"Protect…please protect him…please…"

"What, who!" I slurred, as I had no feeling within my tongue as it flopped lifelessly inside my mouth and slowly I could feel the same feeling within my sore jaw; it could barely move without sending shooting pain down my cramped neck.

My eyelids cracked open to revel the whites of my eyes as my head fell backwards onto a soft pillow beneath me.

I groaned as a faint gleam of bright light rimmed around my slightly opened eyelashes and burned the backs of my eyelids as my hypersensitive pupil shrunk against the dimmed florescent lights that my eyes had to become re-accustomed to.

My head felt like it was in a vice grip and soft crackling noises erupted in my ears every time I jarred my head as I attempted to sit up.

"That can't be good" I mused aloud as the feeling in my tongue returned quickly and I began rubbing my forehead softly, wincing as I tentatively stroked a large bruise I could feel forming over a good portion of my scalp.

"Please tell me that voice was because of the drugs" I moaned as I noticed an IV jutting out painfully from my left elbow. Glancing around hesitantly I realized I wasn't inside the room from the night before but another room entirely.

The metallic, gleaming walls I had fallen asleep watching had disappeared and been replaced with stark white walls. Instead of various and confusing mechanical wiring wound around my feet I awoke to the feeling of soft, smooth cotton sheets that pooled off the cot I was lying on and ensnared themselves around my legs .

"Great now am I?" Attempting to move my legs I felt my joints creak and pop as my body ached and protested against any further movement. As I ran through the foggy and hazy mist of memories from the last night extraterrestrial encounter.

"Yea right, I met E.T…ugh, I'm losing it"

I shook my head in disbelief and tired to dismiss the whole thing from my mind as a wild, exaggerated dream that had probably been induced by the various pain killers I had been given as I slept. Abruptly, a pair of intensely bright blue orbs penetrated my vision, the smell of ozone burned my nostrils, and the strong scent of metal was so overwhelming that I could practically taste it.

"No…"

My voice came out meekly and faint as I realized I had stretched out my hand, seemly to catch the phantom memories that had briefly pervaded my senses, it was as if they were taunting me.

Shaking my head again, a little more forcefully this time, I reprimanded myself, knowing deep down inside whatever had happened couldn't have been a dream, no matter how trippy it all seemed.

I raised my undamaged left hand and combed my sticky hair back with a gimmick as I let my thoughts take over and whisk me away to dreamland.

Suddenly a door to the side that I hadn't seen before slammed open and I jumped in surprise but quickly hissed in pain as I jostled my body to much at once. Two men clad in army type camouflage suits briskly strode in and paused a few feet from the door.

After a few moments of faint, incoherent and annoyed grumbling another man strolled through the door.

This guy was short by most standards. He wore a professional stark black business suit with matching polished shoes and held his nose upwards with an arrogant air of self righteousness about him that made me want to gag in annoyance.

"The premise is secure?" The shorter man questioned to one of the army men that now flanked his side as he glanced around with a wearily look in his eye.

"Yes sir, the monitoring systems for this area have been…delayed momentarily."

The watchful man's weariness quickly left his stance in a flash and he straighten his back proudly as another wide, arrogant, smirk spread across his weasel like features. That bit of news seemed to have calmed him somehow, though I defiantly didn't like that coy smile he wore.

"How unfortunate, looks like Lennox's security system isn't as secure as he thought." He chuckled in an annoyingly pitched voice that was slightly nauseating to my ears and I frowned as he turned sharply in my direction and smirked confidently yet again.

I blinked, still in some degree of surprise as this well dressed man stalked over to my bedside and proceeded to carelessly sit atop my legs as he sat on the edge of the cot I had been placed in.

"You have been causing a lot of stir in the NEST commands, even when you weren't even awake, especially after that stupid little stunt you pulled the other night!" The man snapped as he jabbed a hard finger into my sore chest and caused me to wince.

He ignored my discomfort and after a few seconds of calculating blue eyes glaring holes into my head his gimmicking face quickly transformed into a lurid smile that made my skin crawl.

"Well, at least you're finally up and I can talk to you personally… before Lennox could get to you…" The man mused more to him then to me and mumbled the last part to him as he gimmicked slightly at the name he just pronounced. He spat the name like a poison, the action had me confused and worried at the same time.

"Well then, can you remember anything, anything at all?" He questioned as he leaned closer. I kept my mouth shut mostly out of my own anger at this man's boldness and arrogance.

"Come on don't be shy, I don't have all day kid."

His false kindness faltered as I frowned at him.

"Do you know about anything strange or unexplainable that has happened to you recently? Do you even know where you are … what the hell is this?" he exclaimed, his overwhelming stem of questions were temporarily cut short as the jerk grabbed a hold of the IV drip next to my bed and roughly ripped the bag off its metal stand to examine the medicine.

"Hey, put it back!" I croaked in alarm as I cringed when the needle inside my elbow shifted violently.

Ignoring me, the guy began fiddling with the bag and its contents before quickly throwing it down into my lap, as if it burned him. He jumped off the cot and held a look of revelation and disgust plastered across his face as he turned back to the statue like men he had brought with him and began stalking towards them. I ignored their whispered exchange as my attention was absorbed by the odd florescent pink color of the thick warm liquid inside the plastic bag.

"What is this?" Amanda mused as she squashed the bag's contents between her fingers and she was briefly reminded of silly putty. The teen glanced up again to blurt out her stream of questions to the pushy men but her eyes meet a green clad army uniform.

I choked on my own spit as I noticed that both of the army men had silently gravitated beside my bedside and suddenly one grabbed my waist as the other roughly grabbed my right shoulder simultaneously.

"Hey! What-put me down! Get off me, both of you! Get off!"

I yelled as I squirmed uncomfortably and kicked out with my legs in random directions. The various IV's and sheets that had been wrapped around my arms and legs were ripped off as I was practically dragged off my comfy bed and made to stand barefoot on the cool white tiles.

I kicked in half calculated panic with the vain hopes to trip them or somehow escape and make a run for it. I knew I might have had a better chance of flying away seeing as I could only walk straight with one of them holding onto my waist and prevent me from dropping to the floor in exhaustion.

Dragging the practically hapless girl across the floor the two men were too preoccupied to have noticed a startled looking medical staff quickly walking in the opposite direction of them, though Amanda did and sadly watched him run off.

'**No way, don't leave me here!'**

Sighing heavily, Amanda twisted her head around as she allowed herself to be roughly guided across the hallway, only to get a brief glance of the unknown person's white lab coat flicker out of sight as they quickly fled down a flight of stairs.

Both men ignored the many colorful outburst and creative death threats they were receiving with indifference as they led the struggling and angry adolescent down various hallways and flights of stairs until they reached an empty hallway with a single blub swaying overhead.

The room they all entered into was a steely grey color and all but completely bare except for a sole wooden table and a set of cheap, plastic, chairs on opposite sides of each other. The lone weak light failed to properly illuminate the room properly and only made the flickering shadows clinging to the corners even darker and more sinister looking then before, the scene made my skin crawl and my hair stand on end.

'**It looks like a criminal interrogation room…'**

I became more aware of the biting coldness around me. Shivering in the thin clothes I was wearing I felt a chill creep down my spine as I noticed a pair of cold, calculating dull blue eyes observing me from across the room.

The man from before was sitting in one of the chairs smirking smugly at me as if he had just won a game I hadn't realized we had been playing.

I gulped and tried to maintain a blank look as my hands became numb and I suddenly became clammy under this man's glaring eyes. It was as if he were slowly dissecting my psyche right then and there for the answers he wanted.

'**Alright I'm completely freaked out now, just where the heck am I!'**

The man patted the metal table lightly as he gestured to the foldable cheap chairs opposite to him.

"Sit down kid, I don't bite" He tired to lighten the mode with a twinge of humor as he bared his teeth in a disgustingly charming smile.

'**Well that's a big fat lie' **I deadpanned to myself as my frowned deepen.

Despite my best efforts not too, I couldn't help but gimmick at his snarling grin. Hesitantly I padded my way closer to the stark white chair and after a long drawn out moment I slowly took a seat.

Seeing as my legs were on fire and my back muscles were screaming for relieve, I really didn't think I could stand for much longer.

"Good girl" He praised belittlingly once I took a seat, he bared his teeth wider until I could practically see the pink flesh of his gums.

"Now then, Miss…" he raised an eyebrow as he paused at looked at me expectantly.

I stared at him briefly in confusion before I quickly realized he was asking me for my name,

"I don't give my name out to random strangers". His bright smile quickly fell as he regarded my less than pleasant answer with mild distaste. He sighed.

"Please don't make this interrogation harder than it needs to be" he suddenly growled as he leaned closer across the table to fix me with an icy glare. My breath hitched as he leaned in too close for comfort and I quickly scooted my chair farther back.

"I'm not going to give you anything until I know just where the hell I am and what the heck am I here for!" I bit back, frowning as I felt the blood rush to my face in frustration and anger.

His icy blue eyes flashed for a moment in anger and his jaw clenched as he almost lost his carefully placed composer. I swear I could see a vein throbbing under his neck as I suddenly slammed both hands down on the table in frustration and stood. He quickly composed himself as he let out a noisy breath before speaking again.

"Listen here girl" he began, slowly emphasized his words as he leaned close again. "Since YOU are being so uncooperative we will compromise…"

I watched him warily as he crackled his knuckles, wondering if trusting him at all would be a smart move or not.

'**Probably not…'**

"I will tell you what you want if you tell me what I want…deal?" he questioned as he held out his hand. Not wanting to touch him in the least, I simply nodded my head, he smirked once again as he sat back down.

"You are in a highly secretive base of military operations and you will be told only what you need to know and nothing more. Understood?"

My eyes widened briefly in shock as I numbly nodded my head, my thoughts going wild as I still struggled to listen to the rest of his explanation.

"Though we tried our best to insure the safety of those near this incident, you, an unfortunate civilian, were involved in a very covert operation that spun out of our control as you can plainly see…" he gestured his head towards me and I followed his gaze down towards my arm, the whole thing quickly clicking in place for me.

"…and since you are the only witness to the whole thing I want answers on what you saw." He finished simply as I blinked owlishly at his explanation.

'**Ok. So I'm in locked up in Area 51, my arm is mangled, I'm not allowed to know where I am exactly, and I am being interrogated for something I wasn't supposed to see…'**

"Which was what exactly?"

"What?"

"What was I not supposed to see exactly? Because I will be brutally honest with you, that night I don't remember anything. Frankly I was worrying about more important things I suppose…" I trailed off as I weakly pointed to my injured arm. His forehead creased in frustration and I knew he didn't buy it.

"Well then what about you little midnight episode last night with you sneaking away into a heavily restricted area"? My mouth dropped open a little in surprise.

'**H-how did he know about that?'** He grinned coyly at my brief flabbergasted expression.

"Yes, I know about that too…and from what I've heard you had quite the encounter as well."

I swallowed thickly at his observation. My mind briefly flashed over to the faint humanoid face of the small robotic infant thing again that had plagued my dreams**. 'Is that what he wanted to know about'?**

Suddenly the strongest, most undeniable, urge I had ever felt of protectiveness and fury washed over me and I swore I saw red mist cloud over my vision as I watched the man's taunting smirk. I jumped up and bared my teeth, like a feral cat, as my interrogated was taken aback at my sudden mood swing.

"Listen up! I've had enough of this, until I get a lawyer or a proper interviewer I'm not going to tell you anything. FBI, CIA, I don't care who you are so it won't make a difference if you arrest me. I'm not telling you anything!" I barked in rage.

The man's expression blanked out completely for one moment before something I knew all too well flashed across his frosty blue orbs. It was complete animalistic fury identical to my own.

My eyes widened and my bravo vanished. **'Oh, I am so dead…'**

He lost his entire cocky aura as he suddenly threw himself directly in front of me. His jaw was set and he narrowed his eyes in what was supposed to be an intimidating stare, his eyes inches away from mine.

"You don't get to talk to me like that!" The man thundered out as he quickly garbed my forearms and slammed them down on the hard metal table, effectively pinning me in place so I couldn't avoid him.

Howling in agony as he grappled and squeezed my right arm I screamed in rage and unbelievable pain as I thrashed around.

Suddenly a loud crack echoed over the room and a sharp sting that bloomed across my face sent me reeling back as far as this man's grip allowed. The fresh wave of pain on my cheek brought me back to reality.

Gasping and choking somewhat on my spit I let my fevered forehead fall onto the table's cool metallic surface as I whimpered softly to myself.

"See, this is why we need to corporate" he chided me as he spoke coldly. He swiftly twisted my right arm to the side, erecting a scream from me. "It causes unnecessary pain for both of us…now then what was that about your request for a lawyer."

I grunted as he quickly walked around the table and squeezed my neck slightly to keep my head down while still pinning my arm. He chuckled darkly.

"There are no lawyers or cops here little girl, this isn't like television. To put it quite simply I can simply make you disappear from the face of the earth or label you as a national threat if you aren't willing to cooperate." He leaned closer so he could speak softly in my ear. "…And believe me what I can have done to you is much worse than prison…"

'**BOOM'**,

All of the sudden the heavy door behind us exploded open as a swarm of military clad soldiers burst abruptly through the room.

The sound of the doorway flying off its hinges rattled against my eardrums and the vibrations of the soldiers' steel toed boots carried up through the metal table and shook my teeth.

"Galloway!" A somehow extremely familiar voice bellowed out in an unholy rage. The cold hands holding me down were abruptly ripped away as I heard the man, Galloway, gasp in fear and surprise and the hard thud as he was knocked to the floor.

Hard, gloved hands suddenly grabbed my waist and painfully hosted me onto my feet. I felt my stomach lurch and my head swim once my I was standing again. I tried in vain to fall to my knees and stop this intense nauseating feeling but a second pair of hands grabbed my shoulders and steadied me upright.

Giving up on my fruitless efforts with a groan I reopened my eyes to find Galloway cornered by a very pissed off soldier.

"Galloway you snake, that kid is under critical medical care and you have the balls to just waltz in here and kidnap her for an interrogation session!" The chestnut-haired man thundered out as he stepped closer to Galloway and the two men he had originally arrived with.

My eyes widened in surprise as I watched this fuming man's outburst, a little terrified at his harsh tone.

"Lennox…" Galloway hissed through clenched teeth, I watched closely as his eyes narrowed and his nostrils flared in rage. His distaste of the army officer was painfully obvious and made me sick.

I sighed as I felt an immense wave of exhaustion crash over me and I could feel my feet shaking. I knew I was on my last limb before my legs gave out entirely.

My sigh must have been louder than I expected because the kinder of the two quarreling men turned to stare back at me. I felt my face heat up as I realized in some distant part of my conscious how handsome this new guy looked.

'**No bad Amanda, you're about to drop down dead and all you can think about is how…nice…this guy really is…No! Stop that, Focus!'**

Warm brown eyes stared intently into my hazel orbs and I grinned slightly through the pain as I silently thanked him for sticking up for me against that jerk.

He briefly returned the smile before narrowing his eyes at the government official before him. Without taking his eyes off the oddly silent man in front of him now he addressed the man holding me up.

"Hey, Epps take the kid back to her room and post a guard there this time, apparently locked doors aren't enough of a hint for some people". Of course the moment the command was given Galloway opened his fat trap.

"That girl in under order by the U.S. government to answer to my questions Lennox, and we weren't finished with my interrogation! You have no authority as a captain in N.E.S.T. to keep her like this and I demand of behalf of the secretary of defense that you release her into my authority immediately! " The government agent's face was pinched red as he fumed towards the army captain who simply glared darkly at him.

'**Probably wants to shoot him, and I don't blame him one bit.'**

"Listen here Galloway! What the hell makes you think you have more authority over my base of operations? I'm in charge of the human fractions of N.E.S.T. and that includes civilian casualties. Besides she is not only here by N.E.S.T obligations but also by the autobots' as well." Galloway's eyes suddenly seem to sparkle in interest as he stole a glance at me before swapping back to match glare for glare with Lennox.

"Really? Is that so Lennox, so you admit that she is involved with the autobots now? Secretary Keller well have your rank for this one…" Lennox's eyes flashed as he slowly drew his rifle higher and bit out at Galloway with as much distaste as he could pretend to hide.

"Threats won't get you anywhere. She is not going anywhere with you Galloway, period." I breathed a sigh of weak relief as I sagged against the warm firm body holding me up**. **

**'Amen brother, I would rather jump out the window that go anywhere on this planet with that bastard!'**

I heard a deep chuckle above my head and felt a soft rumbling feeling behind me as the agent, Epps was it, laughed as discreetly as he could.

Glancing up I saw the burly dark skinned soldier unleash one final quiet chuckle before he caught me glancing up at him. Deep brown eyes bored into my eyes as he grinned sympathetically before he suddenly grabbed my legs and began to walk out of the interrogation room and back up the stairs.

I swear I could still hear Galloway hollering after us once the sergeant Epps and his crew navigated their way around back to my room.

One by one his crew vanished to attend to other things until I we were left alone in silence for the rest of the trip back towards my temporary room. Stopping in front of the door he lent me down gently as he unlocked the door with a key attached to his pant pocket and guided me back inside towards my bed. Grunting I slowly heaved myself onto the suddenly heavenly mattress and sighed again for the tenth million time today.

"Hey you all right kid you look pale" I blinked as I looked back at Epps and grinned a half lopsided smile at his concern.

"Yea, just a little frazzled by the goon squad down there…hehe" I chuckled warily.

He gave me a look of understanding before nodding his head thoughtfully. "Yep, don't worry about him he's not gonna bother you for a while now. Besides you're not alone, no one around here can stand Galloway either."

I smiled again at the man's polite talk but then frowned as questions surfaced to the forefront of my mind.

"Hey, um I don't mean to bust the bubble, but when exactly is someone going to tell me just what is going on and what happened the other night?" I questioned as I tried to shrug my right shoulder. The action only backfired as that same white-hot pain licked down the very core of my arm once more and I gimmicked while accidently biting my tongue.

I could taste my metallic blood again.

Epps jumped to action as he leaned closer to get a better look at my arm cast before frowning. He turned back to me again and his brow was pinched in sympathy again.

"I'm going to call the staff for some strong painkillers and get Ratchet to see what Galloway did to your arm." I frowned at the prospect of a doctor but couldn't argue against the promise of painkillers as I gimmicked again. He made a move to leave but I hastily called after him.

"Hey Mr. Epps wait!" He paused at the door way and I blushed, looking down nervously, as he made eye contact with me.

"Umm, thank you…and Mr. Lennox too, for getting me away from the guy Galloway…" I glanced at him in confusion as he started laughing again. "You don't need to call any of us by Mr. kid and I'll pass your thanks to Captain Lennox too"

He smiled at me again before he walked away, only to be replaced seconds later by a white lab coat and another familiar face.

"You!" I yelled in annoyance, pointing my finger accusingly.

It was the same guy who had seen me with Galloway and his goons and then had run off to leave me to my own fate. His scrawny, youthful face looked pale and his coffee brown hair was a complete mess. Wide, startled, green eyes stared back at me and the poor man looked like a deer caught in a pair of headlights.

He nervously cleared his throat before walking at bit closer.

"Yes me…um I have your p-pain medications" the man's, or I should say boys, lanky hand shook as he opened his palm to reveal three maroon colored tablets. I studied his edgy face and instantly felt a twinge of guilt.

"Uh, hey I'm sorry I didn't mean to snap at you" I scratched the back of my head sheepishly, wincing as my left arm felt sore. His nervous demeanor dissipated as he grinned briefly, accepting my apology.

"N-no don't worry about it I didn't want to leave you there like t-that but I need to inform someone of what was going on." He stuttered out and I felt my guilt increase ten-fold. I sighed heavily before accepting the pills graciously.

"Thanks, I owe you." He just smiled again and held up a clipboard as he began jotting down some notes. I swallowed the pills and grinned goofily as I felt my muscles begin to relax a few moments later.

Suddenly the sound of steel toed boots echoed across the hallway as three more soldiers appeared in the doorway. I watched warily as one the new soldiers, a woman, approached me and the medical staff, her face was stern and serious.

"We need her to come to the holding bay now..." Dull eyes glanced at me critically before she then lowered her voice to almost a whisper as she leaned closer to the door

"The big guys want to see her now". I watched the lily colored eyed man groan as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Now?"

"Yes, right away"

"Excuse Ms. Can you walk…?" He glanced hopefully at me, ignoring my distrusting stare at the new recruits in the doorway. Grunting, I tenderly swung my legs down to the cold icy tile before attempting to stand. My legs shook slightly but it wasn't as bad as before, with the drugs kicking through my system and all. I waved off the nurse and the woman as I walked on my own unsteady for a few seconds before straighten out and leaning against the bleached plaster wall.

"All right, I'm fine, let's go" I turned toward the kind male nurse. "Thanks again, um…"

"Roberts" he clarified for me as he did a little wave goodbye. I chuckled as I mimicked him and left.

Regardless of my assertion I was made to have the remaining two soldiers flank my sides, with the woman officer leading the way, as we left the medical ward. Finally we arrived in the vast metal holding bay I had snuck past the other night and wandered up the catwalk.

"Hey kid!" I turned around as I noticed Epps and the man from before, Lennox, walk across the catwalk towards us.

The soldiers around me quickly saluted as Epps and Lennox mirrored the gesture before they were dismissed and scattered. A large hand clamped down on my stiff shoulder and I held back the gimmick this time as I grinned lightly at the two friendly army men.

"Well then glad you are finally up. Welcome to the N.E.S.T base of operations kid" I blinked slightly in awe at the massive computer screens and weapons lying around all over the place.

"Thanks for everything Mr. – I mean Lennox, and taking care of that guy Galloway included" Lennox's face darkened for a minute before softening again.

"No problem kid, we will keep him off your back, don't worry."

"My name is Will by the way and Epps's name is Robert"

I smiled bitterly, remembering all the prodding and poking Galloway did to get my name.

'**Now if the government agent had just been civil like this army guys…'**

"It's Amanda…" I spoke cautiously as I glanced around, expecting Galloway to pop out from out of the blue.

"Great that makes finding out whom you are a hell of a lot easier" Lennox nudged Epps ribs in an annoyed fashion as Epps just shrugged.

"Loosen up on the swearing Epps…"

"Why? She will have to get used to it every time she goes around Ironhide."

"Or the twins…" Lennox seemed to agree. "Especially Skids and Mudflap…" Epps concurred. My puzzled expression was not lost on them as Epps cleared his throat and Lennox shrugged sheepishly.

"I'm lost, who and who again?"

'**And what kind of names are Ironhide, Mudflap, and Skids?'**

"Don't worry about it you will meet them soon but first…"I cut him short as I groaned and rubbed my temples, the pain meds were quickly fading. They both took a step towards me but I held up my hands.

"Wait, wait hold up, I'm sorry but before you go on, can one of you please tell me why I'm here and what the heck is going on!" I huffed, frustrated as my pulse pounding became audible in my ears.

Suddenly the loud accelerator of a powerful engine cut through the hanger bay like a knife and a massive semi-truck rolled into the station and parked just before the catwalk. My eyes widened in surprise as I recognized the flame designed, red and blue, semi-truck from the night of the meteor strike.

I looked around wildly as a loud, booming, voice echoed around the metal hanger and bounced back to ring in my ears.

"I can answer your questions young one." "Autobots…"

"What…" I lost all capacity for words as the truck began to shake violently and a flurry of metal parts flew, twisted, and grinded against themselves as the vehicle began to unfold and lengthen.

Abruptly all of the parked cars, trucks, and motorcycles that had haphazardly parked in various locations within the room began to mimic the semi's actions as they all began to transform. Lost in the fury of metal screeching on metal I registered many pairs of burning, pale crystal like, lights trained on me. I realized a few seconds later that these lights were eyes set into various humanoid faces composed of metal that were all staring at me.

I tried to swallow but my throat was suddenly as dry as a desert bleached bone and my legs felt as if they were rapidly melting like playdo in the hot sun.

The largest of all of them, the blue and red semi truck from before, leaned down at his eye level with the catwalk and directly before me. I took a step back as I clutched the handrails behind me in a vice grip and I felt as if the whole room could hear my thundering heat race inside my ribcage.

The large robotic figure took in my terrified appearance for a moment.

"Don't be afraid youngling we will not harm you" the warm voice booming voice spoke out again and I realized something.

'**This is the voice! This is the same voice that had call out to me right now, and it's the same voice that yelled after me in the desert to stop! Before I… I what…Ah, before I touched the meteor!'**

"I-I'm not" He looked mildly surprised at my words as I put a hand to my chest, struggling to control my racing heartbeat. I recalled the innocent metallic infant face from the night before as I glanced up at them all quickly as the world once again grew fuzzy.

"I believe I've already meet one of your kind before…"

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Hey everybody I'm back! Thank you for all of your awesome reviews, followings, and adding this story to your alerts, you guys make my day! Please continue to enjoy this story and please don't forget to Review!


	10. Chapter 9

Hellloooo (echoes) I'm back! Here it is all you lovely and very, very, very patient readers, it's the next chapter! Enjoy!

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Chapter 9:

_Previously: _

"_Don't be afraid youngling we will not harm you"_ the warm voice booming voice spoke out again and I realized something.

'**This is the voice! This is the same voice that had call out to us now, and it's the same voice that yelled after me in the desert to stop! Before I… I what…Ah, before I touched the meteor!'**

"I-I'm not" He looked mildly surprised at my words as I put a hand to my chest, struggling to control my racing heartbeat. I recalled the innocent metallic infant face from the night before as I glanced up at them all quickly and the world once again grew fuzzy.

"I believe I've already meet one of your kind before…" I muttered aloud, slightly in a daze as I leaned against the railing. My heart began to beat wildly as I felt anxiety and dread mingled with a twinge of shock beginning to seep into every crevice in my body. I felt strong, calloused, hands grasp my shoulders and steady me before I could gracelessly fall to the ground.

"Whoa there" I heard Epps's slightly concerned voice above me as the grip on my shoulders tightened.

"You ok kid. You look like your going to faint any minute" I blinked slowly as I stared up the ebony skinned solider in surprise, I hadn't heard him come up behind me at all. I glanced owlishly at him.

"When you guys said 'Big' I didn't think you meant this big" I chuckled weakly as I tried to steady my erratic heartbeat.

Suddenly the loud sound of whirling gears took me by surprise and a bright blue light blinded my vision momentarily. I bit my tongue and jumped back into Epps's hold as I shrank away from the cluster of giant mechanical beings that had begun to crowd around the catwalk curiously. A lump formed in my throat as I felt an overwhelming yet somehow familiar sensation of violation and coldness as the light scanned my frozen form from head to toe. With a start I realized that the luminous light was coming from one of the giant beings' shoulder. The lemon colored one to be exact.

"She seems to be suffering from an excessive loss of her bodily fluids. She shouldn't be up at this stage-"

"I'm fine" I quickly interrupted the giant metal man as I tried to assure them, and probably myself.

To put my money where my mouth was I slowly straightened up and gently brushed Epps off from my shoulders. I hadn't wanted to offend him for his help after all.

The highlighter colored robot seemed to frown and glare at the stubborn, little, human female before making an odd clicking noise in the back of his voice box. Almost like he was 'tsking' her for doing something bad.

"…As I was saying. Her vitals are unbalanced and her brain waves are changing at a rapid pace, indicating a high chance of collapse and induced comatose."

I frowned oddly in anger and embarrassment at the almost bored tone and puffed out my chest slightly in annoyance at being label as such a weakling on top of being completely ignored.

"Hey!" I suddenly yelled up at the giant robot again as I waved my only functioning arm. They all looked down in surprise towards me.

"So who are you to say when I'm going to kneel over and pass-out huh? I'm fine. Its my body, if I say I'm not going to faint then I'm not going to faint. Beside, I'm not that weak!" I snapped slightly harsher than I meant to before sighing and rubbed my sore throat.

"I mean come on, who wouldn't be in a bit of shock after all **this**" I gestured to my surroundings by attempting to place a hand on my hip and throw an arm out around me in an arc, only to forget about my casted arm and glare in frustration at it for its immobility.

"Stupid thing…" I muttered under my breath as I pointedly ignored the various looks being sent my way.

A heavy suddenly silence settled over the hanger like a dense fog before a long, loud, abrupt, string of laughter broke it. Everyone turned their heads to see the two smaller, notorious, autobot twins chortling as they held their sides and laughed hysterically.

"Oh wow man, the itty bitty human's got spunk!" Mudflap laughed as he jokingly hit his brother's shoulder plate.

"Ya, and man did she got you good Ratchet!" Skids chortled in agreement as they both leaned against each other for balance from their side-splitting giggles. Said medic's face twitched once before settling into a deep-seated scowl.

Amanda blinked as she stared at the newcomers in slight shock, her earlier attitude deflating almost entirely from the random outburst.

"What are they trying to be, rapper robots?" She mumbled quietly towards herself before something one of the odd robots said finally registered with her.

"Hey you, who you calling itty bitty!" She cupped her hand over mouth as she shouted at over them before switching to shaking her fist threateningly at the duo.

Suddenly an insanely large metal tool suddenly sawed through the air and made deadly contact with the two laughing brothers, as they both had stood with their faces side by side, and knocked them both to the ground simultaneously. As soon as the duo had crashed to the ground with a loud **'BANG'** Amanda burst into a fit of uncontrollable giggles.

She caught the odd but slightly amused looks that Lennox and Epps sent her way and she quickly clamped a hand over her mouth as she tied to stiffen her chuckles. Judging by their expressions, they were having a hard time concealing their smirks as well.

A loud, mechanic, sigh sounded over the noisy room and everyone abruptly fell silent once again. The largest of all the metallic beings approach us, the sound of large, booming, what I now know as footfalls, echoed in the hanger and my ears.

The enormous figure that had spoken before leaned down to one knee to become at eye level with the tiny human who watched his actions warily.

Intense pools of burning, blue, fire filled my vision as the huge metal being leaned down and brought his face close to the catwalk, whether it was to ease my clearly broadcasted fear or just to bring a sense of realism to our conversation I could tell.

Why ever he did it, it worked, as I slowly felt my strong feelings of anxiety and panic quell down a bit.

The burning, blue, lights that I would assume acted as their eyes reassured me, calmed me, and as far as I could tell held no deceit or hidden treachery within them only a promise of honesty and goodwill.

They made me feel safe.

As if being released from a spell I slowly took a deep breath as the voice like thunder rumbled again and I had just enough time to hear his words.

"We are aware of your recent encounter, however there is no need to be afraid. As I have said before we will not harm you."

I blinked before taking in another breath, and praying that my voice didn't shake, before I replied.

"O-Ok" I swallowed hard before steeling my nerves as I bit harshly down my irrational fear and, judging from the taste in mouth, my tongue as well.

Optimus Prime watched the human swallow nervously before straightening her posture, trying to hide the fear that still plagued her eyes.

"So, what-well-who are you guys?"

Optimus stood as well before bracing himself for another long-winded explanation, until the twins beat him to it.

"We're the Autobots itty bitty!" They grinned before pointing happily at themselves. Amanda placed a hand on her hips.

"Quit it with the 'itty bitty' stuff you big lugs!" She snapped becoming annoyed with the new nickname that had assigned to her by said snickering twins.

Before they could come up with another retort, Ironhide had quickly and effectively stopped Skids and Mudflap with a quick point of his charged canons.

"Go on, I'm waiting" He warned as he thrust his canons for emphasis at the cowering twins. The lime green and cherry red autobots hugged each other in fear but otherwise stayed quiet. Ironhide smirked and Lennox fought the urge to roll his eyes at the ever so typical antics of his guardian.

Amanda returned her attention to a patient Optimus before grinning sheepishly and scratching her cast.

"I'm sorry, please continue?" She asked nervously, unsure if he would tolerate her short attention span for much longer.

Optimus nodded before touching a small switch on just beneath his temple. His optics seemed to brighten before a small beam of film shot out before the small human. A brief hologram of his home planet was shown as he began his speech.

"My name is Optimus Prime. We are Autonomous Robotic Organisms from the planet Cybertron, or Autobots for short. We were once a peaceful race but then a war broke out between the Autobots and Decepticons and changed everything. Our planet was all but consumed by war and we were all forced into exile."

Suddenly the picture of the odd but beautiful metal planet changed and became consumed in miniature explosions and was reduced in ashes that blew away into the dark vacuum of space. Then, the picture changed to show an image of a cube shaped device with detailed carvings all over its surface floating gently through space.

"We we're brought to your planet in our search for an ancient artifact, which could have rebuilt our home, but sadly it was destroyed recently in battle."

A heavy sadness filled the room as Optimus paused in his explanation and the film ended. The girl frowned, clearly able to the sadness swirling in the many pairs of bright blue eyes around the room.

"I…I am so sorry for your loss…" She bowed her head sympathetically as she fidgeted with the helm of her sleeve, unable to meet the titan's gaze. Optimus nodded understandingly, hearing the little human's soft words without any trouble in the quiet hanger.

"Thank you"

The girl nodded as she continued playing with her sleeve, slightly embarrassed.

"With the All Spark gone we cannot return life to our planet and thus we remain here, watching over and protecting humankind in secret. We have formed an alliance with your government and they have formed a secret team of brave humans called NEST, to fight alongside us, and to hunt down any Decepticons that pose a threat to your species and our new home."

The child stared at him in slight awe as he finished.

"Wow…" She blinked for moment as understanding lit across her face.

"So that means… I'm in…the NEST base of operations?" Amanda questioned as she titled her head curiously. Suddenly she felt a hand fall on the top of her head, rubbing it roughly. She looked behind to see Epps patting her head.

"Yep, welcome to NEST kid." He grinned cheerfully. The little girl gave him a blank stare. Lennox chuckled at the obviously un-amused look his partner was receiving.

"What am I? A dog or something?"

"Naw, more like a puppy I think."

"Huh?"

"What do you think Capt.?"

"Yep, defiantly. Like a little lost puppy, especially the head tilt."

"How does that have anything to do with-" A loud sound interrupted the exasperated girl as she turned to see the unknown, smaller, yellow robot from before looking at her and pointing while making a loud series of odd beeps, clicks, and whistles. Amanda figured he was trying to talk to her.

"I'm sorry what are you saying?"

"He is trying to say that you remind him of young Samuel and Mikael" Ratchet supplied as he crossed his arms.

"Though I hope not, those two together a pure trouble"

"Together they're almost as bad as the twins." Ironhide muttered unhelpfully as he too crossed his arms.

I blinked.

Okay, so maybe being afraid of a large team of giant, intelligent, but peaceful, robots that could easily squash me like a little bug under their little toe; if they even had one of those; was irrational.

But still, they were generally friendly and wouldn't squish me if they got to annoyed right?

…Right?

"Wow…huh, I hope the little one won't be like that. I mean, well, I know he is much smaller than what you guys, that and he is just a baby really, but still…I hope he won't be like them or he's gonna be a handful huh?"

I rambled nervously as I shifted from foot to foot. It was an odd habit I had picked up.

'**Good grief I can only hope the soldiers around here can manage if that little tike can walk.' **I mused mildly to myself as I stared up at the large and intimidating metal giants before me.

'**Then again, I think these guys can take it. I mean they're all part of the same species right?'**

Suddenly I realized with crystal clarity that everything had become dead silent. I bit my tongue as I wondered if I had somehow suddenly offended the giant hulking metal monstrosities before me when all the others began clicking and whirling away in what I assumed was their own native robotic tongue, excluding their leader.

Optimus was it?

He did not move and remained as silent as a stone statue.

I looked nervously at the two soldiers behind me.

"Did I say something wrong?" I whispered apprehensively towards them. They both wore oddly pinched expressions as they watched their alien comrades speaking uneasily among themselves.

Lennox stared hard at the girl in front of them for a moment as he came to a conclusion.

"I don't think most of them knew about your late night encounter the other night"

"Oh" Was I could say in response as I wondered silently to myself why that was apparently a big deal.

Suddenly everything stilled once more as the Optimus raised a giant hand, indicating for silence.

"I see then, you must have been the one that activated the shuttle pod and brought the new sparkling online then?" I could only stare at him with a vague sense of understanding and hopeless confusion.

"Um…maybe?"

I knitted my brow together and cocked my head slightly, another terrible habit of mine. I blinked as quickly remembered something.

"Hey wait, what happened after I fell asleep? Where is he? Is he all right? Why can't I hear him crying anymore?"

The questions flew from the girl's mouth as hazel eyes widened in panic and began looking in every which way they could.

I could feel the panic begin to settle in my chest and worry coil within my belly when the thought of the small, defenseless, creature I had come to feel for wasn't anywhere near me.

A new hand on my shoulder held me where I was before I could frantically bolt out of the hanger bay like some crazy, mad, woman. I struggled against the iron grip for a moment as my heartbeat began to rise. I vaguely heard myself growling angrily at the hand.

'**Why isn't anyone listening, it was just a baby, it could be in trouble or hurt! Let go, I need to find him!'**  
I stilled for a moment as the grip on my shoulder became almost painful before I was bombarded by questions.

"You could sense when the sparkling in distress?" The yellow medical robot, who I now know as Ratchet, addressed me in complete surprise with a hint of suspicion coloring his tone as he leaned closer to my perch.

"How is that possible when our sensors were completely immune to it?" A much deeper, gruff, voice commanded as I turned to see a different robot, in all black this time, questioned me with nothing but suspicion clouding his tone. His glare was more so intense that the rest of them, bordering on near hostile even. I shank away from him and almost started hyperventilating when his arms seem to shift into a pair of large canons. Optimus shot him a warning look and he thankfully put them away.

"How did ya figure it was a little mech?!" The two, suddenly more upbeat, rapper twins chorused in fascinated unison before they all but flung themselves directly in front of the little, already skittish, human and leaned closer in unsuppressed curiosity.

The girl yelped in surprise before falling painfully onto her rear before any of the equally stunned army men could catch her.

"Stop agitating my patient!" Ratchet quickly snapped as he turned on the twins as they shrank back from the dangerous glint in the medic's eye and mumbled a quick stream of apologies toward the still reeling human female before quickly backing away.  
"We're sorry!" They both yelped simultaneously as they sprinted to hide behind a golden robot with two black racing stripes streaking down his armor. Amanda watched blankly as the golden robot made an odd but cute whirling sound of indignation before he promptly reached behind and kicked the two smaller bots out from underneath him, leaving them helpless against the larger yellow one's wrath, which was discovered to be another large and dangerous looking tool that was promptly chucked at their heads.

Amanda could only stare in bewilderment from her sitting position on the cold floor at the scene unfolding before her. It almost remained her of something that you would see on an old TV. Sitcom.

She would have laughed right there if she didn't have other more pressing matters swimming around in her head.

"I don't know, how I know what I know, I just know…" She spoke quietly as she crossed her arms defensively around her shivering frame. The thin army cotton dress did nothing to keep out the chill that crawled up her bare legs and stabbed at the soles of her feet. Suddenly blue invaded her vision as the giant she had spoken to before leaning down at eye level with her once again. Amanda gasped in surprise before freezing in place, fear overriding her senses.

"Please do not be afraid again, I still promise not to harm you youngling."

Amanda tried to breathe normally before making eye contact again.

"Where…?" She asked shakily. Optimus seemed to understand the unasked question.

"I will take you to him if you can answer a few questions for us first" Amanda gulped and nodded vigorously.

"You left Ratchet's medical ward three earth nights ago, the pod was still in stasis, but the next morning we found it had been activated. Did you have any part in that?" The girl blinked in confusion, caught off guard by the question.

"I-I don't know, maybe I did, but I'm not really sure what exactly happened that night" Amanda shook her head slightly. Optimus observed the human closely, sensing any doubt but finding none.

"Then start explaining, from the beginning", Ironhide spoke up gruffly as he walker closer to Optimus and the humans on the catwalk. He still didn't trust this human female yet. The girl frowned and a glared at the black Autobot with mutual dislike. She shook her head again.

" No way, you would all think I'm crazy…"

A laugh caught her attention and she looked to her right to see Lennox chuckling at her. She flushed in embarrassment.

"Believe me kid, after all we've seen we can take it"

She huffed before crossing her arms defensively and sighed in defeat.

"Fine"

"Good girl" Amanda frowned at the obvious 'puppy' comparison again. She returned her attention to Optimus.

"I was having a really vivid and wired dream and something kept telling me to go and protect someone, but I didn't know who it was and then I woke up. When I woke up I thought I was still at home and I could hear my baby brother crying."

"So you did hear something crying and thought it was your brother?" Epps asked aloud in dulled sarcasm. "Didn't you kind of realize you weren't home when you snuck out?"

She scowled at him.

"I was out of it, ok? I just woke from comatose and I was a little loopy. I blame the drugs." She added as she started pointedly at Ratchet. Said medic grumbled something under his breath before humming aloud.

"Those 'drugs' as you called it, was my medicine, and it should have, by all means, kept you in stasis."

"Stasis?"

"Sleep." Lennox clarified at the girl's confused expression.

"Oh…well they didn't work" She frowned as she continued to glance pointedly at Ratchet. He continued to frown at the young human child in turn.

A deep rumbling cut through their glaring match as Optimus Prime sighed.

"Please continue…?" The girl did not respond to the unspoken inquiry.

"Amanda" Epps supplied cheekily for her as he watched the girl shoot him an annoyed look.

"Just because I told you my name doesn't mean you have to blurt it out to everyone. I can speak for myself," She growled, just a bit testily while Epps smirked.

"Really? I didn't think you would…" He trailed off innocently. "Beside, being shy won't get you anywhere around here kid." Despite the carefree manner in which the dark-skinned solider spoke, she could hear the serious undertone behind the words. She tensed before sighing in defeat.

"Fine…anyways, I followed the crying and I ended up falling down some shaft or something. A grate caught me, I guess, before I could become a human pancake. But then it fell through and I hit my head pretty hard."

Here the child rubbed the back of her head and held back a wince at the memory.

"So I stayed like that for a while but then I saw a strange blue light and the pod, er…shuttle, was floating in midair."

The child caught herself once again as she made to make an exaggerated sweep of her injured arm. She frowned at the restrictive cast before continuing.

"Then I just…wanted to… no I needed to touch it, really badly. So I did but then something strange happened…" Amanda trialed off, rubbing her chin as she tried to find a way to describe the extraordinary event she had witnessed. She clicked her fingers as it dawned on her.

"It was similar to what you guys look like when you transform from cars", she explained briefly. "But instead of turning into something like you guys, it just opened" She finished lamely.

"I see" Optimus spoke, his deep, lulling, voice hide his obvious unease about the situation.

One lone, human, child should not be able to approach, none the less, open a highly radioactive cybertronian shuttle pod that they could not open themselves.

It was unnerving at best.

"And then?" Optimus pressed on.

The girl swallowed nervously.

"Well…when it opened I snuck a quick peak and saw… well him. I untangled his legs from all those wires and cables. They bleeding this strange pink and blue liquid" She wrinkled her nose before pulling a face.

"It must have gone bad or something because it smelled absolutely terrible" Momentarily forgetting where she was, the child stuck her tongue out in disgust as she recalled the offensive odor.

"A wise choice youngling, prolonged exposure to spoiled energon and carburetor fluids can be potentially harmful to a sparkling, especially a stasis locked sparkling" Ratchet grunted in approval, secretly glad for the girl's immensely helpful, though unintentional, intervention. The clueless human just might have saved the little one's spark.

Amanda nodded.

"I figured as much, that's why I took him out of there-"

"You did WHAT!?" Ratchet snapped, his optics widening in surprise and the smallest trace of fear. The girl nearly jumped off the catwalk in terror.

"H-h-huh…?" She sputtered meekly as she cowered behind Epps.

Epps himself looked supremely uncomfortable as well, having Ratchet's rage directed in his direction.

"You little fool, you shouldn't have done that. You're tiny, adolescent, mind might be underdeveloped but you should at least have more processing function then that!" The medic raved as he gritted the equivalent of his metallic teeth together. Amanda growled and furrowed her brow

"Hey, take that back!" She yelled as she stepped out from behind Epps. She could very well know an insult when she saw one.

Said solider look relieved and nearly sighed in relief. He scowled at Lennox as he caught the captain smirking at his expense.

"Use that thing you humans call common sense. If decomposing energon and can harm a cybertronian, imagine what it can do to a human! It could have melted the skin right off your bones! " Ratchet snapped heatedly as he scowled down at the human. She scowled right back.

A deep cough interrupted the standoff as everyone's attention was now reverted back to Optimus.

"Enough Ratchet, I believe she understands now," Optimus commanded the frazzled medic. Ratchet snorted.

"Of course Optimus" Optimus nodded as he directed his focusing gaze on the human child once more.

"Other than the immense danger you placed yourself in three earth nights ago, there are other repercussions you should be aware of youngling" His deep barrow voice rumbled gently, in an effort not to frighten the visibly weary child.

Tired eyes looked at him cautiously as she waited patiently for him to finish.

"In addition to opening the shuttle pod and reviving the sparkling, it seems that a spark bond was formed between the two of you as well"

Loud murmurings could be heard all around the room as the girl merely raised an eyebrow in confusion and exasperation.

Lennox cleared his throat when he noticed the girl refusing to speak once again.

"What do you mean by that exactly Prime?"

Optimus said nothing at first as he kneeled on one knee and looked at eye level with the humans before him.

"It means Captain Lennox, that this human child has unwittingly created one of the most powerful and oldest bonds there is between two life forms. It has existed since the beginning of life itself and only occurs every few millennia… a spark bond"

Here Amanda could no longer ignore the alien's words as she was forced to look directly into his blindly blue optics.

"W-What is that?" Her voice barely carried from her mouth but the hulking behemoth heard it anyway.

"A spark bond is a sacred bond between two intellectual organisms; one that rivals a bond made between life partners or similar to bond between a creator and their creation. The strength of these bonds is extremely powerful. It allows the recipients to accomplish incredible feats that they are normally impossible for them."

"It also quite rare among our species, the last recorded one was nearly a few million earth years ago." Ratchet spoke, having cooled off somewhat.

"But this is unheard of between members of our species and another" Ironhide pointed out as he folded his arms worriedly. "Are you positive about this Optimus?"

The blue and red mech rose slowly back to his original imposing height as he served his troops around him.

"Yes, the matrix of leadership has told me so" He spoke as he left the catwalk and walked back to his troops.

Amanda stared dumbly after him in shock. Suddenly finding her voice as well as her feet she raced down the flight of stairs, ignoring the shouts of surprise behind her.

"Wait, wait, wait!" She was panting as she came up to the feet of the cybertronians.

"You (pant) promised (pant) I could (pant) see him"

Optimus looked down at the human child by his feet curiously before kneeling down once more. He stared contemplatively at the exhausted youngling by his bi-pedal.

"Yes young one, you have kept your word. As I have promised I shall keep mine."

"Bumblebee" Optimus called as he rose and turned to the yellow scout behind him.

A flurry of clicks, whistles, and radio snippets answered his call.

"Take the girl to the med bay, sector 9"

"Sir (whirl)… yes sir…(chirp)…aye aye captain!"

With that the visibly excited yellow scouter quickly jumped up and approached the girl cautiously. He stopped around fifteen feet away from the girl and held a large metal hand out cheerily.

Amanda stopped trying to shy away from him once she noticed the black striped door panels on his back beginning to drop and the sad expression clouding his facial features. Her face crumpled as Amanda felt a flash flood of guilt.

Who was she to refuse his help when he only being nice to her?

Taking a deep breath, Amanda closed her eyes before reopening them and striding confidently towards the now elated robot.

"Aw, look at that Cap. Looks like the kid can't stand Bee's infamous puppy face." Epps chuckled. Lennox snickered under his breath while Ironhide smirked.

Bumblebee made a 'whirling' sound of indignation and annoyance while Amanda crossed her arms haughtily over her chest and stuck her tongue out at the two NEST soldiers.

Amanda nearly bit out her tongue and shrieked as she felt her stomach sink when Bumblebee lifted her into the air. Realizing her discomfort the giant metal man-made an odd noise that Amanda supposed was an apology and suddenly she felt herself being deposited on a yellow polished shoulder.

The girl gave him a thankful smile.

"Thanks. The girl gave him a thankful smile.

"Thanks. Um, you're not gonna drop me are you ?" She questioned hesitantly. The scout shook his head. Suddenly a loud static of voices interrupted her as Amanda looked at the yellow autobot in surprise.

"Shh…Negative ghost rider" A robotic recording sounded from the middle of the yellow mech's neck. Amanda gave him a questioning look as the golden mech turned from the main hanger and began the short trip to Sector 9.

"Why did you use the radio?" She wondered aloud after a few moments of thick silence. She leaned over on her hands and knees to look around to the metal face.

Bumblebee let out a series of complicated chirps and clicks. Amanda cocked her head as she thought.

"So…you can't?" She guessed. Her answer was a heavy shake of the head.

"Oh"

The pair lapped in silence once more.

"…I'm sorry Bumblebee" She spoke somberly.

Amanda furrowed her brow when the yellow bot shot her a glance followed by a curious sounding stream of sounds.

"Well, I mean I am curious about why you can't talk, but I figured it would be better not to ask. I mean if someone just waltzed up and asked about my arm I don't think I would want to talk about it… " She shrugged as she looked down at the nearly brown cast, some splashes of mint green could still be seen in a few random patches here and there. She glanced up to see that the yellow mech had stopped in his stride and was staring at her. Amanda blinked before looking down, slightly embarrassed.

"What I mean is, I don't want to pick at an old wound. Besides, you're a really cool gut so far. I'd hate to get you mad at me so fast." She finished lamely as she scratched the back of her neck nervously.

It seemed like an eternity had passed before either one moved.

An abrupt string of robotic language nearly burst the young girls eardrums as she clapped her hands to her ears against the vicious onslaught.

"What, what, what did I do!" She yelled panicky over the noise, worried that she had seriously offended her current mode of transportation.

Suddenly with an abrupt whirling sound the noise began dying down before stopping all together. The abrupt stillness hung in the air like a deadweight.

Amanda shook her head and rubbed her ears gingerly as she struggled to dissolve the permanent ringing left in the tender appendages. Suddenly the loud sounds of static and muted radio clips filled the hall as Bumblebee struggled to voice his thoughts.

"Cut my life into pieces, this is my last resort!" The still slightly stunned girl blinked once at the mighty mech as she cradled her still pounding head. Of all the thing that had to be blasted in her ears, it was the band 'Papa Roach'?

"Cut you're life to pieces? Wait, someone did this to you on purpose!"

A frown was spaded across her face as she tried in vain to swallow. All traces of confusion were wiped clean as understanding stole across her face.

The darker yellow Autobot made a loud sound that caused a puff of pressured air to throw her hair back from the vents she was seated close to. The sounded was similar to a sad sigh.

"Oh man Bumblebee, I'm so sorry. I really shouldn't have asked-" The girl babbled quickly, close at the point of hysterics for mentioning such a personal issue.

Suddenly the yellow robot made another mash of sounds while shaking his head vehemently at the creature by his helmet.

"What doesn't kill you makes you stronger…(whirl)…I am Titanium!" Amanda girl blinked for a moment at the songs before allowing a small, guilty, smile to form over her chapped, lips.

"Yes, I guess it does" She offered a shy smile as she fidgeted from her perch atop the larger being's shoulder.

"You must be one tough cookie, aren't you Bee?" She laughed nervously.

Bumblebee made a whirling noise of agreement before shaking his head happily.

"Roger, roger…(chirp)…Airline to tower we have reached point A, over...(shhh)"

Amanda cocked her head to the side when Bumblebee stopped and slowly knelt to the ground before reaching for the human perched precariously on his shoulder plate.

"Point A?" She wondered aloud as she slowly reached out for the metal titan's palm and slid neatly into his hands.

"You mean sector 9" She confirmed as she glanced back questioningly at the smaller Autobot, now safely on solid ground once more.

Bumblebee nodded his head simply before gently prodding the girl towards the human sized entrance.

Amanda shuffled nervously before the entrance before glancing over her shoulder, unease was written plainly on her features. Bumblebee watched the human curiously before kneeling down next to her still form. He made an odd questioning noise as he gently poked her good shoulder.

The girl flinched in surprise as she was jolted out of her thoughts by the large metal finger tapping her shoulder.

Amanda looked back at the hulking metal creature kneeling behind her patiently.

She stared into those large, bright blue, eye lights hesitantly as she opened her mouth to speak before frowning and closing it, somehow at loss for words. Bumblebee made another curious, though slightly, impatient noise as he wondered what was bothering the little human.

Amanda closed her eyes for a moment before swallowing harshly.

"I don't know if I can go in there" She whispered quietly, hoping that her voice didn't crack. Amanda opened her eyes slowly as she watched the metal pieces around Bumblebee's mouth turn down into what she assumed was a frown before he cocked his head to the side curiously.

"I don't know if this is right. I don't even know what I'm doing, and I don't know if I should go see him or not. It's not that I don't want to but… if I get attached to that little guy I don't know what's going to happen, and I don't want to hurt him" She frowned as her eyes darted to the floor. Bumblebee made a small supportive noise, prompting her to continue.

"It's just that I don't think anybody really wants me here." She spook quietly as she fiddled with her cast absent-mindedly. Bumblebee frowned again, asking for another elaboration.

"I mean all those military guys, Ratchet, that guy Ironhide, that creep Galloway…" She shuddered for second as she held her arm closer and deliberately trailed off.

Bumblebee felt the four 'wings' on his back rise in agitation as he made a small winding noise of irritation against the nosy government agent. In his optics, harming an injured child was nothing short of Decepticon worthy.

Amanda looked up briefly at the almost angry noise before shuffling awkwardly.

"I'm not supposed to be here. Plus, I still want to go home soon. I mean I really miss my family and I think they would be worried by now." She stopped again as she bit her lip. Images of her friends and family flying through her mind. Anxious and worried faces clouded her mind for heart clenching moment before she spook her head forcefully, reeling in all the pain for now.

What I'm trying to say is, is that I don't think this is a good idea anymore" Amanda finished as she sighed heavily through her nose.

'**What am I going to do?' **She wondered blankly as she continued her stare contest with the polished floor.

Suddenly a loud sound interrupted her somber thoughts. She glanced up curiously at Bumblebee.

"What is it?" She asked curiously. Bee made an odd clicking sound for a moment before he gently rested one of his servo atop the small tuff of fur the human's called hair and rubbing the human's tiny head.

Amanda blinked in surprise at the comforting gesture before sighing and smiling sheepishly as something occurred to her.

"I was being overly dramatic wasn't I?" She asked as she grinned guiltily and finally found the courage to stare into the familiar twin pools of unearthly, glowing, blue light.

A light series of rapid chirps was her response and somehow the girl had the sneaking suspicion that the giant, yellow, robot was teasing her.

She rolled her eyes lightly.

"Yea, yea, very funny. You're right that was stupid of me" She confessed.

Amanda sighed loudly again and wrapped her lone arm around herself as best as she could while Bumblebee made another noise of concern as he glanced down at the ever emotionally changing human.

"Oh. Its nothing I'm just…thankful is all. Thank you Bee. I needed that." She smiled shyly again at the incredibly kind alien before chuckling to herself over her last train of thought. Never in a million years would she have thought she would have ever say that.

Bumblebee whirled and clicked happily in his own language for few seconds before another stream of lyrics were thrown at the girl on the ground.

"You've got a friend in me. You've got a friend in me..." The voice of Randy Newman echoed soothingly into the deserted hallway.

Amanda couldn't help the ear-splitting smile that wormed its way onto her face before she laughed cheerfully.

"Thanks Bee" She nodded "You too" the girl added seriously as she finally made her way to the door.

She gripped the handle tightly before glancing one last time at the mech over her shoulder.

"Hey Bee, will I see you around?" Bumblebee didn't waste time as he nodded his head and stood, making an odd clicking sound that sound very similar to a 'bye bye'. Amanda nodded gratefully.

"Ok. See ya" She waved as she slowly walked in and softly closed the door behind her.

Bumblebee watched the curious human go with a click of happiness and a whirl of relief.

As the golden scout turned to go and make his way back to the hanger he couldn't but be remained strongly of how much this little, human, female reminded him of his own human charge. He wondered briefly how she would react to the powerful spark bond she had made with the sparkling, after all she was still human.

The mech sighed as she shook his head.

It didn't really matter in the end. Bumblebee had seen what impressive feats humans could accomplish when they put their processors to it, and he had a strong feeling that if this girl was anything like Sam then she would be just fine.

* * *

Now we have another taste of what happens when you throw autobots, a confused teenager, the military together but this time with a baby transformer on top! What fun.

Anyway, I really hope you have enjoyed this chapter and I apologize sincerely for the late update and my tardiness. Please do not forgot to review if it tickles your fancy or PM my account if you have any further questions. I enjoy talking to you all and seeing what you think of my story. Thank you all very much.

-Sincerely, Mara Gin


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